


The Boundless Sea

by journaliry



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Accidental Marriage, Alternate Universe - Magic, F/F, Language Barrier, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, MerMay, Romantic Soulmates, Rough Sex, Royalty, Soul Bond, Witch Rose Lalonde, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:49:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 26
Words: 62,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24070876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/journaliry/pseuds/journaliry
Summary: Dave Strider comes from a more than well-off family, so well off in fact that his older brother, Dirk, is sailing the seas with his own crew intent on conducting research on the elusive mermaid. Dave comes along for the journey into loosely charted waters, pessimistic about the endeavor, that is until he accidently courts a mermaid.
Relationships: Dave Strider & Dirk Strider, Jade Harley/Rose Lalonde, John Egbert/Dave Strider, Rose Lalonde & Dave Strider
Comments: 50
Kudos: 138





	1. First Meeting

You lean onto the steel bars as you look out at the horizon, there is nothing except for waves upon waves, stretching out and touching the ends of the horizon. The waves are all illuminated by the moonlight, touching a large pitch-black sky. At least the sky is filled with stars. Other than that, there is absolutely nothing out here. Makes you wonder why you even came. 

Your older bro used to travel alone, but since you turned eighteen six years ago Dirk always wants you to travel with him. You suppose that he doesn't want you rummaging through his stuff. You are known to wander around the home you share.

Next to nothing has happened even with about twenty days at sea. Even though this voyage is monotonous, you've went on many other expeditions much more cumbersome than this. You've searched forests for spirits on foot, you've traveled north up the mountains in search for griffins. On the same note, you see pixies every other day in your family's overly extravagant garden. 

Thinking of it now, even though you've been on many a few expeditions with your brother, you still hardly see anything _'magical'_ excluding the occasional elf and the usual dwarf. Not many things other than humans live in the cities, your knowledge is limited to whatever your bro tells you about his travels. Dirk loves to sail to the east to search for shapeshifters or spirits to study... but you namely think that he takes up the journey just to collect swords and other stupid useless weapons. 

Dirk's only pursuing all of this so he can catalogue his discoveries down and make a name for himself. You don't see why he should put in the effort; the Strider name is enough of one. Plus, with the invention of the radio you think people care more about listening to stories rather than reading some rich explorers’ stuffy _‘catalogue.’_ Doesn't help that Dirk always treats every _creature_ he meets like they're just that... a creature. Almost always you can't communicate with them but that doesn't make them a lesser. You gave up hope on convincing your bro about interacting with harpies and selkies like they are people all the same. Dirk will never see eye to eye with you. Now, you only join along on Dirk's expeditions just to make sure he doesn't go too overboard. You know your brother has the tendency to get violent, and you're also well aware you're the only thing that can hold him back. You're not going to let him harpoon a mermaid or whatever the fuck his planning on doing.

Honestly, you're feeling so frustrated that your bro decided to invite you along and then decided to not tell you or Rose any of his real plans. That and you think that Dirk probably gave his crew the entire rundown of his plans, but all of them refuse to talk to you. Probably cause Dirk's anal about _'intermingling with the lower classes,'_ they must assume that you're the same way. Figures.

The only person on board that ever talks to you -or even visits your stay- is your friend, Rose. Lalonde is an excellent, yet defiant, witch. She makes pleasant company, even though her sense of humor is even drier than yours and nearly all her interests are macabre. That and Rose's favorite hobby is making your bro uncomfortable.

Your brother must have brought her on board because of her knowledge of the Arcane and probably also as a favor seeing that she's studying magic. Rose said something about mermaids living completely in tune with magic and being envious of the ease they have in using it. You don't know how she is certain about that seeing that hardly anyone has seen a mermaid up close and lived to brag about it.

Last time you saw Rose she was studying up on what little was documented about the beings. Apparently, Dirk saw fit to bring on board a small library for her. The entire vessel is huge, just as big as you remember as a child. You've only been on your families ship once when you were eight, but the entire deck is so familiar to you it's almost like stepping into a dream. 

You've been feeling out of sorts since you started this trip, but remembering your childhood now is making you feel even more uneasy. Especially seeing that your childhood is in no way different from your adulthood. You just let yourself be dragged left and right and sleep through the entire morning with no repercussions. You were always hoping for more out of life but this will do… you need to make sure that Dirk isn’t needlessly cruel… you’re content with that being your life’s purpose.

Earlier in the day Dirk and his crew captured a hippocamp, a larded winged-ed creature with the top half of a horse and the tail of a fish. You recount Dirk oversaw the creatures capture, he was standing to the side with his hands behind his back. Dirk was watching the men that he has hired pull in the white equine creature. It's scales shine was almost violent, it reflected a blinding white light from the sun. It took your eyes a few moments to adjust to its glare. Once your eyes were able to focus, you noticed that its lower body was like a fishes tail. It was covered in silver scales, not in anyway gray, but a perfect argentate, silver. You joined Dirk at his side. Without so much as looking at you, your brother spoke and expected you to listen, "this is good." His words were completely casual, unmoved by the whines and screams from the one-ton beast in front of him. "My research has indicated that mermaids use these creatures to travel long distances. This is a sign they are nearby. We will continue searching in an hour. For now, this is an appeasing find. I will allow my crew to rest, does that appease your wishes? I will not work my crew 'to death' this time around." Dirk walked away from you before you could even think about responding. Dirk traced towards his men and ordered them to tranq the beast. Once the needle found its way into the creature's neck, it fought off the men until it slowly passed out from the injection. From your knowledge, the beast was to be taken to a tank somewhere below deck, you did not exactly know how they managed to carry it there... you didn't stay around to find out. Something about how the horse didn't give out fighting until it was forced asleep by drugs unsettled you. You went back to bed but couldn't sleep. You kept wandering around the upper deck. Stumbling around the surface of the ship. 

Leading you to where you are now. 

You sigh. You repressed your ache as you lean over the railing. You haplessly look over the waves and focus on the dancing moonlight. You're too tired to move your legs to go back to your room, that and you think you'd be too tired to get to bed anyway.

In the distance, far in the ocean, you can see something bobbing in the water. You squint your eyes and lean over the rails to get a better look. It seems a while away but it's getting closer. Almost looks like someone's swimming towards your ship. It can't be, it's moving way too fast. But wait... it is a person! Someone must have fell overboard. You look around the ship. It must be 5 in the morning, everyone's in their quarters. There's no one around to help, no one but you. You run along the railing. You rush over to the lifeboat and start unraveling the rope. You lower it as quickly as you can. You keep lowering it as you jump over the railing and onto the small boat. You struggle to quickly, but gently, lower yourself and the boat into the water. You nearly crash into the ocean. You're entire boat shakes as water splashes over you. The water is bitter cold but nothing you aren't used to. The water back home in the lakes is freezing runoff from the snowy mountains. You shake off the cold in an instant and begin calling out to the man you see frantically swimming in the ocean water.

"Hey! Over here!"

Looks like the man heard you, he's rushing over. 

He looks like he's far out. You better meet him halfway; he's got to be exhausted. 

You leap into the bitter cold water. You hurry to swim closer. The salts caking to your hair and getting under your nails. You keep pressing on. As you swim you keep trying to call out that you're ready to help the man who fell overboard, but the water is slamming into you. It looks so much calmer when you were up on deck.

You stare over the waves and notice how this guy is swimming towards you. You rapidly blink at the sight. This guy swims like it's his God given birthright. Before you thought this guy was just flailing around, but that was at a distance. Now you're almost terrified at how quickly this figure is approaching you.

As he gets closer you can see he has a tan complexion and ebony hair. You see something shimmering behind him for a split second, and there it is again. There's something reflecting the light from the moon, almost like... fish’s scales. 

He's getting closer. You start to hear your heart in your ears, you think it's in your throat. You didn't even notice you stopped swimming. All of a sudden. He's submerged underwater again. 

Before you even register it in your mind. Something grabs onto your chest. It feels like someone’s pulling at your shirt. Something's surfacing in the water right before you. You see a small peak of messy wet ebony hair peaking over the waves. Somethings messing with the hoops of your pants now. You feel like you're being patted down, whatever is touching you is acting like it's never... seen clothing before. He's pulling at the fabric of your shirt. Rubbing it in between his fingertips. And then, suddenly, you see two ocean blue eyes staring back into yours. You open your mouth to speak but before you could even form words in your mind -or scream- you're dragged into the water. 

He keeps dragging you down. You struggle to get your head back to the surface, but to no avail. He's just too strong and you don't want to shove him off of you. You don't want him thinking you're a threat. You think you can get out of this if you can find a way to gesture that you need air to breathe, but he just keeps dragging you down further and further.

You keep your mouth shut, you don't want the air escaping your lungs just yet, but the force that he's dragging you at is so strong till, all of a sudden, he slows down. He pulls away from you.

You look into his blue eyes and notice... that he's smiling. He's grinning at you, smiling like he's some girl that knows she's about to be asked out to the dance. Once he straightens out his face, he straightens out his back, looks like he's getting ready for something...? You fully notice how his large deep blue tail just swiped the water around him. He turned away from you and then suddenly turned back around, he's sticking out his arm and gracefully moving about the water. He's moving around almost like... he's dancing?

You're too startled to even respond. The mermaid in front of you is elegantly moving his body about like he's inviting you to tango. He slowly and delicately moves his arms while he thrusts his tail from side-to-side. He keeps spinning around, wearing a stone-cold certain look on his face, like he knows exactly what he's doing and he's proud to show off. You on the other hand, have no idea what is going on.

The mermaid stops dancing, he keeps swaying his tail like he's still in the groove of things, only he's waiting on you to do something... you think he wants you to join in. You start swaying your body gently from side-to-side. The mermaid's eyes light up as he smiles a large open-mouth grin. He takes up a proud look again as he returns to his dance. You gently sway with him, like you’re part of the dance. Then the mermaid takes it upon himself to start swimming away. You wonder only for a moment where he's going until he starts spinning around and doing backflips in the water. He's proudly showing off all his moves to you. He's going all out. He slows down only to get a look at you. You guess that it's your turn. You better not insult him, it's best to just do whatever he does. You can't do much better than an underwater backstroke and a few probably stupid looking turns. Of course, he's giggling at you, you're not sure if that's a good sign or a bad one but you stop anyway. You guess you gave him the floor. He starts mimicking the moves that you were trying to do. This guy makes swimming look like an art. You've never seen anyone float so gracefully while still flipping their entire body around. The mermaid moves around in a circle, in a beautiful twirl. 

You open your mouth like you want to say something. Only no words come out. Instead, bubbles start escaping out your gaping mouth. You slap your mouth shut with both hands. The mermaid is still dancing, certain that his performance is dazzling you. You can see that his eyes are completely shut. He's more focused on his moves than on you. The mermaid extends out his hand towards you, like he's gesturing for you to kiss his many golden rings.

Your eyes frantically pan around his body, he has on several gold bracelets and bands around his arms and a golden band around his neck. You can hardly see in front of you, the salt is stinging into your eyes. You take his hand and pull him close to you. You start pointing up and then to your neck. You hope he gets the picture. You hope he knows that humans need air. Suddenly you feel his arms wrap around yours. He's pulling you close.

The mermaid holds you close in his arms and starts swimming upwards using only the sheer force of his tail. The rest of the air in your lungs just blew out of your mouth. You start to feel less panicked and more dazed. Water is starting to fill your lungs. You try to cough it out. You can feel pressure around you almost like you're at the surface.

Once you break the water’s surface, you gasp and start hacking out water. The mermaid is still clinging onto you. He's pulling you over towards the boat that is already a good distance away from you.

The mermaid is frantically moving his tail towards your family's ship.

He's saving you.

. . .

You finish coughing up the last bit of saltwater that invaded your lungs. You're grabbing onto the edge of the lifeboat. You keep taking deep breaths, hoping that the stale air will help cleanse your lungs.

The mermaid is still holding you. He begins to help you up as you drag yourself onto the boat. 

He starts pushing you up. Trying to lift you into the small wooden boat on the surface of the waves. He's struggling, things are a lot harder to lift on the surface then underwater. The mermaid kept pushing you regardless, helping you into the lifeboat. When you were finally secured and in the raft, the mermaid peaked his head over the side of the boat. You could see two large and wide eyes gaze up at you. 

The mermaid slowly begins to pry himself up and out of the water. He's looking directly into your gaze. The mermaid tilts his head and narrows his sapphire eyes at your gaze. You hope you don't look as terrified as you feel. You suppose you should be more grateful now that you're safe. After all, he just saved your life. 

Usually you could hear the whipping of the wind, the ship must be breaking the wind. All you can hear is the pushing and pulling of the waves. Then you hear thuds. The mermaid is actually trying to pull himself up and onto the boat. You don't want him to force himself out of the water for you so you lean over. Hoping that he just wants a closer look at you, but no. He shoves you out of the way. He wants to get up on the boat. You decide it's best to help him get up.

You offer up your hand, he takes it. You help pull him up and out of the water. When he's up, his tail is still hanging off of the boat, something he doesn't care too much to correct. He proudly looks down at the wooden boat beneath him and then back up at you. He lifts up his chin and offers you up his hand again.

You take it and kiss it gently. He pulls his hands away and pulls it up to his chest. He starts twiddling with his necklaces golden chain, almost like it's a nervous habit of his. He quickly pulls himself together again, seems like he's prone to breaking character. You smile for only a moment before you start panting again. Your lungs feel like they've been beaten, that salt water was murder on the two of them. 

You cough once again and then the mermaid mimics you. Almost like he thinks it's your way of saying hello.

You smile again and lightly laugh, he laughs back. He starts twiddling with his necklace again.

You look down at it. You guess you stared at it a little too long and it might be a little too valuable to him because he clutches it and hisses at you. You chuckle again and gesture lightly with your hands that you don't want to take it. You place your hands on your lap as you marvel at him again... maybe it's the way he keeps smiling and then putting on a brave face, but even with the way that he hissed at you, you don't feel at all threatened.

You offer out your hand. He looks down at it and then right back up into your eyes. He tilts his head like he doesn't know what to do with it. You just hold out your hand again, hoping that he gets the picture. It seems like he does. He places his hand delicately and slowly into yours. The two of you continue to exchange glances, he seems much more apprehensive about this than you. You just give him a gentle smile and -oh god- you're rubbing the back of his hand with your thumb like a braindead moron. You must seem like a complete air head. You've been gawking at this poor mermaid for God knows how long and he seems so bewildered by you.

You must have weirded him out.

You shutter for a moment and without thinking you speak,

"I'm sorry... Uh- I'm- My name is Dave."

"...Was?" His voice is so light as he speaks. 

The mermaid delicately shifted its head to the side.

You point towards yourself, guessing he can't really understand you. 

You just say your name. "Dave."

You point towards him, hoping he'd reply.

He tilted his head.

Suddenly the mermaid straightened up again.

He proudly lifted up the hand you were holding like he wanted you to kiss it as he said,

"Johannes, erster Erbe des Mittleren Ozeans."

You shook your head, you didn't understand any of that just now.

The mermaid spoke with a high-pitched but soothing voice,

"...Johannes.”

“Yo...han-nes?” You struggled to comprehend what he just told you.

The boy before you gently laughs and then gives you a simpler name to say, "Yohn." His name was still tinted with his accent, but you understood it this time.

“John.” You repeated.

The mermaid happily nodded.

You let go off his hand and cupped it instead.

You kissed it again.

John slowly took his hand back from you. He traced his hand down to your knee. 

You lightly gasp at his touch until you noticed that he was just... marveling at your legs. You guess he must have never seen a human, and seeing that you've never seen a mermaid you can relate. Part of you wants to touch the scales on his shimmering tail but your mind voted against that. You don't want to seem any more pathetic and absent minded than you already seem to him.

John continued to trace his fingertips along your legs. He's examining it like a tailor looking for flaws in the hems on your pants. John squeezed your kneecap and then started probing at your thighs. He keeps digging his fingers into your knee until- "Ouch." -You let him know that he hurt you. He immediately stopped prodding at you. He lifted his hands delicately as he stared at you with wide eyes. John pulled his wrists up to his chest. You started to chuckle. He looks so shocked.

"It's alright." You softly tell him, hoping your tone is enough. 

John lightly placed his hands on his lap. He looked down at the boat and softly spoke,

"...Ich mochte deinen Tanz..."

"Huh?" You had no idea what he was saying.

“Du verstehst mich nicht...?” John looked up at you, “Forstår du mig nu?”

It sounded like he completely switched languages. You think he’s trying to communicate with you but… "I... I'm sorry…” You softly tell him. “I don't understand you."

You're sure he doesn't understand you either. 

John just looks up at you, squinting with those perfect ocean blue eyes, like he’s trying to listen but he can’t hear you.

He looks down and mutters something softly to himself. You can't even hear it over the waves crashing into the life raft. John looks back up at you again. He softly shakes his head and peers into your eyes. 

John shifts his body, he's pulling his tail into the boat, you help him. You gently place your hands on his tail, your thumb is gliding over his smooth scales. There are no imperfections at all, it's a tad bit slimy to the touch but the color is so beautiful. In the moonlight it's reflecting a perfect sea blue towards you. You look back up and get a chill through your spine when you notice the look that he's giving you. That or you're just shivering. You didn’t even notice that you’re still drenched.

There's something about John's gaze that makes you feel... intimidated. Like there's something dangerous about him in a... personal way... you don't think he's going to hurt you but... he might just take your heart and run off with it... not that you'd mind, he’s free to take it. 

You give John a gentle smile. Your lungs are still burning but you don’t think that’s honestly John’s fault. You're sure he was just introducing himself to the first human he's ever come across with a dance. It's probably a custom, but you've got to admit... being forced underwater is one hell of an experience. You don't think John intended any harm to you. His eyes look so sweet and kind, he doesn’t have the eyes of a killer. John probably doesn't understand how fragile human lungs are. In his mind, the world is underwater, and he has to dance where there's room. You don't even have to forgive him because you're not angry. He just doesn't understand you, and you don't get him... but that's more than alright... so long as he stays with you for a while.

. . .

The two of you continued to marvel at one another, John seemed transfixed by your legs and knees... and you were just taken by him completely. He kept nervously laughing and twiddling with his gold bands. You kept trying to hold in your sighs, you don't want him to think you're bored... you're making progress with communicating with him now that he knows not to poke you in a... certain place. You had to guide his hands off of your crotch and ass a few times. Now he thinks that you're shy about him touching your torso in general. John giggles to himself when he pokes you in the chest, like he's testing you. You laugh with him.  
There he goes again. twiddling that gold band of his. You look down at his golden necklace again, it seems like he's comfortable enough to let you stare at it without hissing at you. You can see there's something small inside of a golden ball, whatever is in there... it's like a small ball of air... it's swilling around inside of the golden ball. You can see a ball of mist peeking through small holes in the golden metal... it's almost like a tiny cage hosting something inside.

You don't know how to ask him about it. You don't even think he'd be able to explain what it is... maybe Dirk would have better luck speaking with him... but you don't want your bro to accidently insult him. You know Dirk doesn't care much for pleasantries, even with other humans... but you don't want John to get the wrong picture about you- you mean... give John the wrong picture about other humans. You’re sure you could give Dirk advice on what to say... but if Dirk translated for you, you're sure he wouldn't capture... exactly what you want to say. You're better off smiling at John and gently pointing at his golden necklace, just to tell him that you like it.

John looks up at you, you feel a sadness tint your heart at how nervous you just made him. John clutches the golden ball again as he stares up at you. You try to tell him, "it's beautiful."

John nods. Like he understands your words. "es ist deins..."

John gently nods his head and begins to take off the golden chain. John holds it up and places it gently over your head. You take the small ball and put it into your palm. You marvel at it. It's so small but it feels so... alive? Something about it is so vibrant and full of energy. Even though the gold is heavy, it feels so light...?

You look up at John. John slowly moves towards you and presses his lips against yours. 

You gasp as he pulls away. John looks off to the side. His tail starts pounding inside of the boat. He's slapping his tail against the wood and against your legs, he’s got to be bruising you but you’re not stopping him when he looks so happy. He keeps sheepishly looking off at nothing and then back over at you. 

You lean forward. You purse your lips, you gently kiss his cheek, just to let him know that it's alright. John’s tail settles down again. He’s still. 

You gently whisper his name.

He gently whispers yours back.

Suddenly you feel the boat start to rise. John looks startled. You want to tell him that it's okay... but you know your brother well enough to know that John's better off in the ocean. You try to help him out of the boat but John refuses to move. He's staying put. 

You mutter to yourself in a language he doesn't understand, "so you trust me enough to give me this but not enough to leave when I tell you to."

John is proudly sitting in the boat with his chin raised high. You sigh and roll your eyes; you guess you can play defense for his protection against your brother. Sure enough, once the two of you reach the boat, you're both met with your older brother standing right infront of you, holding himself like a war lord. John doesn't seem shaken at the nearly six-foot-tall man with a sword peeking from his belt. Oh Great. He got dressed up and everything. Some men throw a blanket over you, good thing too, you just realized that you're maybe a little too close to freezing. Rose walks over from behind the man who helped you. She cracks something off of a piece of what looks like bark and hands it to you to eat. You don't question it. You just down it. It takes spicy but sweet, like cinnamon. Instantly your whole body feels warm. You look up at Rose again but she’s not staring at you. You follow her gaze and look over at John. John seems elated to see all of these people around the two of you.

John breaks the silence, “grüß gott.”


	2. Tanz der Liebenden

You’re resting on the surface of the water, watching the stars flicker in the sky. You heard stories that the stars are made of what the humans call “fire.” You imagine that the sky is like the water, things float in it and the space in between is flat, there’s no up or down, only left and right. You can’t picture living your whole life on the surface… but back home there is nothing to do but dream.

You made the journey out here on the back of a hippocamp. You’re far from home, but right where you need to be. You were blessed before you left, as all mermaids are, that you'd be led to your soulmate. Many others left on the same journey, you saw quite a few on your way here but none of them interested you enough to prompt you to want to speak with them.

Many must have seen the gold bands around your arms and fingers, they must have thought twice before approaching you. Seeing that you have such a high stature, _you must approach them._ Just the thought of that enough is enough to make you groan, you hate the rules and customs you’re forced to embody. You hate the fact that you’re more of a symbol than a person. And you really hate that no one ever wants to speak with you as a friend! Everyone back home was far to scared to even speak to you. Only your younger sister gives you the time of day. Your father tells you to keep your chin up, to keep moving forward and your grandmother always expects that you do what you’re told. You have an image to maintain… you’re sure you can’t even approach your lover as your true self, you’re just going to have to be stuffy and boring and ugh… _sophisticated._ You’ll never understand how your sister is able to keep up appearances so well seeing that Jade’s even more excitable than you are. Maybe you just can’t keep on a face like you’re proud because… you’re not. You never wanted to be a prince. All the other mermaids your age have so much more freedom and no expectations other than hunting fish- which you still must do! Only when you do it you can only pick out one and a time and you have to make a show of how skilled you are as a hunter and still move with grace and ugh! You are so tired of it all. At least when you finally meet your soulmate, you’ll have someone you can confide in.

You’ve been floating in the sea for hours before you finally decided to go topside. You were excited to go to the surface, you felt in your soul that the stars will be out. 

You were happy to see that you were right. Still, you were battling with yourself about if you should go up to the surface. You were taught in lessons that mermaids used to read constellations and you were quite proud that you taught yourself how to use them to navigate. Still, you heart your grandmother's voice telling you to follow your instincts like a proper prince would… no, you’d rather go up and say hello to the stars and greet the moon.

The air on the surface usually feels strange and unpleasant to most mermaids, but you enjoy the feeling. Once you found yourself on the surface you felt the difference. It feels so light and strange...

If you’re being honest with yourself… the ocean feels like a prison. You know you have an expectation to represent the best of your people, but the middle sea is a well to do place. Everyone wants for not and every day your people’s bellies are filled with fish. The elders are taken care of, the people are happy and live with purpose and pride... but you only feel like yourself when you’re away from all of that. You’re not allowed to laugh or smile when you’re around the other mermaids. You’re not allowed to make jokes with them or play games… Only thing you’re allowed to do is shut up and look pretty. Whenever you tell Jade how bored you are, she always tells you that you can speak with the elders about anything and they have to answer. That’s how she knows so much about humans and their customs, but you don’t care to listen to the elders talk about how in the old days when they came across humans, they’d eat them alive and use their bones for spells, it seems mean. You don’t like the idea of harming humans just because their way of life is… well… a bit barbaric. 

Humans don’t live in water, so the sun often scorches them. Some say, they house and breed animals just to wear their skin or feast on their eggs, how disgusting! You even heard they mate with people they aren’t bonded too! You can’t picture ever stepping out of line that far… but the idea of falling for a human… and having them sweep you away to some far away plain. Someone taking you to the shore, the land... so you could see what is up there. You don't know what the world of the human's is like, but you bet it is beautiful. 

You always pictured a human taking you to see the extent of the surface. You always secretly dreamed of marrying a human and providing him with nice fish to fill his belly and dance for him to make him happy... You always pictured that, but you know there’s nothing that can come from that hope. It’s just a silly dream. Only thing you’re sure of is that it shall be another man. You saw a vision the day you came of age of your lover’s face. Well.. there's that and the fact you always knew of your interests in the same sex. You’re sure your lover is probably going to be a prince from another sea, you expect he might be a bit taken back by his lover being a man. It's not too uncommon that two lovers are of the same sex, but you have the feeling your lover gains the attention of many the herring. Women probably flock to him. You're certain you'll be stunned by his looks when you see him in person. Although... he's probably going to be taken in by the beauty you were blessed with using magic as a gift from your late mother and the moves you've been practicing intently your entire life.

You hope that your soulmate views you to be more of an equal and less like a prize, although you have no choice in that matter, but you still have your hopes... Maybe your soulmate will understand you and completely sympathize with the burden of upholding the his culture too. Maybe he can dance swifter than the currents and smoother than the sand. You hope that he at least holds your waist and pulls you close when you first dance. You want him to never want to let go of you. You hope that he’s the needy type too, that he always wants your attention and that he listens intently to every word you say!

You can't know if any of those hopes will come true. All that you know for certain is that he has eyes, red like an anemone, almost dangerous with how vibrant they are. Even his pupils are red, gazing into his eyes would fill your chest with... air... not water but air. You've never seen eyes like his before. You know how his face looks. You know how it seems longer than most, even his nose is long but oh, he is handsome. You could imagine that if you were not blessed to be his soulmate that you would fight for the right to be with him. You bet his voice sounds calm and collected. You can imagine everything about him is soothing... You remember that his hair is whiter than sand… just like the clouds in the sky. 

You let out a light sigh. You dwelled on the thought at you gazed into the sky. The stars looked so vibrant that night, like they were begging you to stay with them. So, you did, at least for a little while… that was before you spotted something approaching on the horizon.

There was something huge in the distance.

You’ve never seen a human sea vessel before, Jade told you they’re called ships!

You swam towards it against your better judgement. You have to go see! You must! At least before you give up your freedom and your soul belongs to another. You have to.

You rush over, racing as quickly as your tail will let you.

You just heard a yell. Voices sound so strange on the surface world, but you recognize instantly what it is! It’s a human, calling you over to him. You turn your head and you spot a human floating on the surface in a funny looking buoy next to the giant vessel skirting on the water's surface. You can already feel from this distance that his soul is a warm and kind one, you see his aura is red and... sweet! You feel like screaming, you’re so happy! He must have felt the pull to travel all this way just to see you too! You traveled for miles and miles from home for days upon days just to find him! You can see he has white hair!

He is your beloved!

. . .

You couldn’t help it. You were so excited! Too excited! You dragged him down into the water to dance with you. He’s not the best swimmer in the world but he tried, you were so happy that he danced for you regardless. Your sister told you all about humanity, Jade was obsessed with studying everything that she could get her hands on. You never saw the appeal... not until now. Now you're happy that you listened to Jade, you could have killed your new darling if you didn't suddenly recall that the surface dwellers cannot breathe underwater. Poor darling. _‘Schatzi.’_ But still… it means so much that he danced with you.

Your lover tried to show off some moves but apparently humans spend little time in the water, he looked a fool, but you loved every moment of it. You had to hold yourself off from cheering, you couldn’t help but let out a few laughs. Your beloved is so funny, he can’t even say your name right and he even has a silly name… Dave… 

Now the two of you are resting on his small ship. It doesn't feel soft like driftwood, but it's still nice. Dave continued to stare at you as you admired him. Dave seemed interested in the gold wrapped around your neck, he seems like he’s trying to ask you for it. You hiss at him. He didn’t do anything to earn it yet! It’s his and he’ll get it, but your lover’s impatient! You kept hissing at him each time he stared at it! You’re trying to get him to romance you or court you but he doesn't even make an attempt to take your hand first! He just asks for your golden necklace, right away! The nerve! You guess humans just give themselves up in an instant, but you’re not so easy! If your love wants your soul, he’s going to have to earn it!

Then... what Dave does to prove his love, is that he lets you have free reign. He lets you examine his body and his legs. You’ve never seen anything like this in person, it’s so alien to you and yet, very welcome. Oh! You’d love to see him walk! You hope he brings you on board and literally caries you to his nest, he probably already made it! You heard humans are smart so he probably thought ahead. You’re sure he made you up a nice love nest while he traveled to you. Oh and you are famished! You'd like a few fishes to eat, it's customary that mermaid's offer up their lovers fish when they build nests, but your darling probably eats human food... like eggs from birds and their other... leavings... you hope he thought about your palette and not his. Although, you're already guilty of forgetting that he lives in a much different way than you. You still feel bad that you forgot that humans can’t breathe in water, at first you thought that hacking was just his way of thanking you but _no, he was dying._ Lord, you feel like such a bubblebrain! Thankfully, your lover doesn’t seem mad at all. Dave seems too entranced by you and your beauty to feel anger. You feel so nervous when Dave’s eyes fall on you another time. You’ve never seen such passionate eyes before, he seems gentle and kind too. Dave laughs at almost everything and his laugh is so quiet and gentle. Dave is taken by your beauty, you can tell with the way he looks away from you he's secretly shy. It's the look of a man too nervous to ask for a kiss but desperately wants one. Yet, he can ask for your soul. A funny little guppy he is. 

Dave seems nervous about you touching his body. No matter, now that the pleasantries are out of the way you can begin your true manner of courtship! You will dance for Dave again, but your next _dance_ will be in his nest. Oh, you can’t wait to see what he does to seduce you! It's part of courtship to parade around the best shells and magic items in a mermaids possession, but seeing that your lovers a human, Dave must have bizarre things like fabric and… fire! He’ll probably dazzle you with fire and… and… human magic! You don’t know! All you know is that he’s going to show off everything he has, all his wealth to try to get you to agree to giving him your body. You were planning on playing hard to get… but now that you see him and you see he's a human, he can have you as soon as he takes you to his nest and gives the word, or rather… makes a move… you can’t understand his bizarre human tongue and he doesn’t understand yours, but you don’t need to understand each other to love each other.

Dave gently points at your gold necklace. Dave’s gesturing towards it… asking you for your soul. He mutters words you don’t understand, but your heart tells you that he values it. You nod and tell him that it’s his.

You take off your necklace and place it on your lover’s shoulders. He examines the tiny golden ball around the chain… he admires your soul. Once he looks up into your eyes again you gently place a kiss on his lips. You pull away. You need to look away to restrain yourself, you’re so ready to give him yourself fully and completely, you gave him your soul and you want him to have your body, but you have to stay dignified. You are a prince after all. A man who represents the middlesea... a royal mermaid... and now a human has your soul.

Though you may never return to your people again. You don’t feel any regret in your heart. 

Dave gently leans in and lightly kisses your cheek. He whispers your name. You happily whisper his. You know that humans carry their souls in their bodies. You can’t officially be bonded until he takes you into his nest. You understand what he needs to do next. You fully welcome coming on board to his ship.

Just then, you feel the boat begin to rise. Your eyes widen, you weren’t expecting this so soon! But you suppose the pleasantries are completely over, Dave’s the impatient type too you already guessed that. Seems like Dave can’t wait to give you his soul through his body as you assume humans do.

You happily smile. Dave suddenly starts shoving you, like he wants you to jump down to the water. You give him a bright grin. Oh, he’s not the one moving the little ship! It’s someone else, seems like he’s shy at someone else meeting his lover. You suppose your family would tear Dave apart in an instant for being human and taking you from the sea… so maybe you’re going to have to fight his family to survive. You assume the worst, but you’ll only start fighting if someone tries anything with you or your darling.

Once you reach the top of the big ship you’re greeted by humans. They toss a long piece of fabric onto your lover and feed him. Oh… that’s right. Human’s don’t like cold either. You happily smile as you greet the other humans as politely as you can. They each stand on their legs and stare at your tail. You place your hands on Dave’s and hold them to show your intentions. Right away, they understand. 

One of the humans brings their fingers together and snaps them, making a clicking sound. How charming. Suddenly, your lover leans over and makes the gesture like he’s trying to protect you. You hold your hand to your chest like you’re protecting your soul, oh, it’s not on you anymore. Your lover’s holding it. Dave starts speaking to the man with the golden hair, “don’t hurt him.”

“I have no interest in _harming_ him.” The tall man towered over you and Dave as he stepped forward, “but he is dangerous, Dave. We need to be careful.”

Dave wraps fabric around you as he speaks with the human with the sand colored hair. “John’s just about as dangerous as you are to me.” Dave started patting down your hair with the fabric, you gently smile at him as he speaks. He must be trying to get the others to understand your newly found love.

”Then why are you completely soaked? Did he drag you into the water?” The man with the intimidating voice asks.

Dave looks at you as he speaks in words you can not comprehend, “he didn’t do anything wrong. John just pulled me into the water he danced around a bit… and helped me onto the boat...then he gave me a gift..." Dave looks back at the tall man with the golden hair. "I can tell you everything, just let him go.”

“Dave.” The woman next to your lover spoke. Her hair was silver, like magic. You could tell from the aura on her soul that it was tainted. She was conspiring with dark magic. She kneeled down and got a look at the gold chain around Dave’s neck. “You have no idea what this is, do you?" Once the witch leaned forward to hold it, you pushed Dave aside and snapped your teeth towards her. You extend the fins hidden under your black hair. 

“Whoa- whoa.” Dave starts holding you at your sides. He doesn’t need to hold you back, you won’t jump her unless she touches your soul. Still, you hiss and bear your sharper row of teeth. You need to make a show that necklace is for Dave and Dave alone. You tell the witch directly,

“Du hast keine Manieren.” You then let them all know that your lover is the only one who may touch your soul and then tell them to let you and your lover go to your love nest, as it is customary to do so.

“Dein liebhaber?” You hear a deep voice speak with a strange accent. Still you understand him. “Sie liegst falsch. Mein Bruder ist nicht dein Liebhaber.”

“Doch.” You point at your soul around Dave’s neck. “Er trägt meine Seele!”

Then the man with the golden hair speaks again, “Dave versteht Sie nicht-”

You turn to look at Dave. You kiss him on the cheek and cling to his chest.

You make a show of how you two are together and that you are in fact lovers. Dave pats your back and lightly laughs, he’s so fond of laughing. Like a little seagull. You rest your head on his chest and close your eyes. The other humans may not understand your love, you do not need to convince them, or your family. The two of you shall live the rest of your days together on land and away from any that do not understand what rests between the two of your hearts.

“John.” Dave addresses you with his funny accent. 

You softly hum as you stroke his chest. Dave lightly grabs you and pulls you off from his chest, that’s right… you forgot how shy he can be about touching him there. You hum out a laugh and accept that he wants his space. Humans seem quite touchy.

You look up at Dave as he begins to speak with his brother, “what did John say to you?”

Dave’s brother replies, “he told me that the two of you are lovers.”

Dave stiffened up slightly. His brother continues, "and it seems he expects you to perform the rest of some... cultural ritual that you partook in."

You could see Dave's brows lower. Dave looked over towards you.

You happily look up at him, slapping your tale from side-to-side. The look Dave’s giving you is sending a surge through your heart. Dave starts wiping you down with the fabric again. You guess humans like being dry and he wants you to be dry too. You plant a kiss on his cheek as a thank you for taking care of you, then you lightly giggle.

Dave’s brother spoke up again, “Dave. You’re going to get hypothermia if you stay out here any longer. Bring the mermaid with you on board and we will discuss this in the morning.”

“Wait.” Dave sounds worried.

The witch interrupted. “We will treat him like a guest, I’ll see to it myself.”

Dave sounded bitter as he spoke with his brother, “but you’re still going to study him like an animal, aren’t you?”

“Regardless of what _I_ do, Dave...” Dave’s older brother spoke up and walked towards the two of you. He’s lean and thin, but you can see muscles fill out the fabric of his shirt. The man brought himself down to your level and spoke directly to you, “he’s not going to leave your side now.”

“What do you mean?” Dave was asking for his brother’s attention.

The man with the golden hair turned away.

Your lover gently called to him in confusion, “Dirk?”

The tall, slender man stopped and spoke with a deep, dark voice, 

“You dug this hole for yourself, and now you get to lie in it.”


	3. Bounded

You carried John on board yourself. You placed him in the tank that was brought just to house a mermaid.

You stood at the surface of the tank as he floated on top of the surface of the water. You tried to tell him that it was safe, but John looked panicked once you made your way to leave. John called out to you; his cries sounded like the wail of a baby bird. John sounded so disheartened, so you chose to stay for a few extra moments. Once you finally left for the night, John was tapping on the glass, trying to get you to come back to him.

You know that Dirk said that John thinks the two of you are lovers but you think that means that John just has feelings for you, he did kiss you and give you his golden chain, but you’re sure it’s like a… courting gift? Like someone gifting flowers. You should ask Rose if you should give him a gift in return for him to keep with him when he returns to the sea.

Rose forced you into your room and into bed. She left to go to her room. Rose ground up a few spices and herbs along with cinnamon bird droppings and flame newts and made a tea. She’s drinking it with you now just so you didn’t feel like shit for drinking literal shit.

You’re laying in bed as Rose is sitting in an antique chair across the room. You’re sipping onto the tea while trying not to gag. Rose has no problem sipping on the tea like it’s lavender or honeybush or whatever tea she’s fond of right now.

“So.” Rose places her teacup into the small plate in her hand. “You courted a mermaid while I was asleep.”

“I thought someone fell overboard,” you explained. “I just went out to go save him and-”

“You were so over tired that you couldn’t bring yourself to remember what this expedition’s name goal was? Is that it?”

You sigh and roll your eyes. You place your tea down on the nightstand next to your overly large luxury bed.

Rose placed her tea onto the antique table. “What happened?”

“Okay.” You tell her everything, but you sugar coat it just a smidge, “John took me underwater and showed me a dance, I started dancing with him and then he helped me back to the surface. I was down under for too long and got water in my lungs but he helped me back over to the boat and while I was recovering, John checked out my legs and I checked out his necklace and I guess he thought I wanted it cause he just… gave it to me?”

“And…” Rose asked you with skepticism in her tone, “do you know what that is?”

“Uh… Gold?” You shrugged and gently grabbed onto the golden ball lightly tapping against your chest.

Rose is as blunt as she is annoyed. She simply says, “that’s his soul, Dave.”

You hold onto the first syllable as you give her a look, “…what?”

She opens her mouth to speak, Rose looks over at the door and shuts her mouth. All of a sudden, there’s a knocking at your door. She must have senze someone.

Rose sat up and opened the door, she quietly spoke to whoever was behind it. Then you hear a low, deep tone. You know from the cadance alone that your bro is outside.

You sit up from your bed and begin to walk over to the threshold. The bathroom is right next to your bed so you can’t see the door with the wall in the way. You just heard someone open the door to the bathroom and start running water in your bathtub. You squint your eyes as you turn the corner. You can see probably the largest and buffest man in the crew carrying John. John is shoving him like John doesn’t want him to cradle him or coddle him like some princess. Once John sees you however, he leaps towards you. John nearly hits the floor, he expected that you catch him and he's lucky you did. You hold John up by the chest and basically hug him. His tail is slapping into your legs. You anxiously look down at him. You have no idea what is going on in his head, but you know why he’s here. John must have made a scene about being separated from you. John looks up at you with those large blue eyes and presses another sweet kiss to your lips, one you can’t reciprocate with your brother present.

You need to find a way to give John his gift- his soul- back to him. John belongs in the sea with his own kind, not trapped on a bathtub on your family’s ship. John seems more than pleased to be dragged into the bathroom and set down into your tub. He marvels around the room and clasps his hands together when he sees the lights on the wall next to your mirror. You think if he saw the mirror head on, he’d scream… This whole world is entirely new to him and you get John must want to see it all… but you don’t want him getting to comfortable.

John looks over at you and asks, “Warum hast du mich nicht früher hierher gebracht, Schatzie?”

Your brother makes his way into the room, he lightly shoves you aside to get a look at John. John lightly hisses at Dirk, seems like John didn’t appreciate Dirk bumping you around.

Dirk kneels down before John and tells him, “Mach es dir nicht bequem.”

John looked devastated at Dirk's words. You glare at Dirk, as he leaves to speak with the men outside for a moment.

You look back at John and he seems pleased that you just gave your bro the eye. John's back to swinging his tail around and splashing water everywhere he can. You pay him a half-smile as you lightly laugh at the sight. 

He doesn't know any better and he'll probably do it again soon, still... you begin to dry off the white tile floor.

. . .

Dirk made you leave the room so he could speak with John again, you needed to grab more towels anyway. John's excitable. Once you got back you heard hisses and a few shouts. Seemed like John was having an _attitude_ with Dirk. You like him more and more by the second. John doesn’t put up with anyone’s shit, not even yours. John hissed at you whenever you looked at his… _soul_ … You sigh as you lean your back against your bedroom's wall. Everyone else has already left.

Maybe you shouldn’t have danced with John. You should have just pointed up at the surface and tried swimming up… but you didn’t want to insult the guy. You wanted to make a good first impression, maybe you’re just a sucker for those sweet bluebell eyes of his… or his gentle smile or the way he’d giggle and lose focus and then pull himself back together, he seems so refined and sophisticated... but still caring and he's nothing if he isn't funny... or beautiful. You sigh again. He's already got your heart but... that doesn't mean you should have his.

Your arms are still crossed as you lean against the crimson red wallpaper, your foot is up against the dark wooden panel along the wall.

Seems like Dirk's had enough. You hear the door to your bathroom open you turn your head to match his gaze.

You hear water splash and see droplets smack against Dirk's back. Dirk's entire head was soaked.

Dirk shuts the door and gives you an intense look, even more intense than usual.

“ **Do. Not.** do anything with him.” Dirk is pointing at you like you’re a child he has to deal with.

“What are you talking about now?” You lift up both your hands to complain.

“You know what I mean.” Dirk keeps pointing at you. He puts down his finger as he turns away from you and out of the room. “Sleep in your bed and don’t enter the bathroom again until I give you the okay to do so.”

“Fine. Whatever. I’ll let you know when I wake up.” You’re too tired to argue.

“I’ll hold you to that.” Dirk gives you a look as he exits your room and shuts the door.


	4. Heirat

The human that calls himself Dirk is rude rude rude! He has the nerve to speak so horribly informally to you and then tell you that _"You’ll have nothing to do with his brother."_ You told him that it’s already to late and you’re soul is bonded to Dave’s but he doesn’t believe that. Of course, Dirk can’t see it! But your soul is already started to turn red. You noticed it once you placed the necklace around Dave’s neck. You can even see Dave’s aura is starting to turn blue when you squint hard enough! You bet the black magic witch can see it too, hopefully Dirk asks the witch about the auras you spoke off. You bet he doesn’t understand the words anyway… he doesn’t speak your language right. You think it may be a dialect issue but he just can’t seem to say any words properly.

You sigh. It’s been a while sitting in this… this… thingy- alone. You miss Dave.

You poke at the… the… thingy to pass the time. You’ve never seen rock like this. And the four… four… rock formations around you are strange. It’s bumpy and white, while the thingy you’re sitting on is smooth… You don’t understand how humans can craft such things without the use of magic. Oh! Maybe that’s why the black magic witch is on board. She crafts the things they need! Hmm... you'd prefer that Dave craft your nest. Maybe he has yet to make it... maybe he's going to follow your traditions and lay with you in sand- oh no... he can't breathe underwater, you keep forgetting! You wonder if he thinks you need water to live. You only need so much to do so. Maybe you should crawl out of this large white... thing? Oh well, maybe not... it's comfortable in here and Dave placed you here so he wants you here. You'll do as he says, you're a guest for now until you're bonded fully.

You swim over to where the two stars are. You lift yourself up to get a better look at the fire. There's light coming from two... giant shells? You don't understand, still it looks beautiful... maybe you can even hold the... ouch! When you tried to hold the white shell it stung your hand. They are burning hot. 

You yawn. You trust Dave enough to protect your soul, but your vessel needs rest. You curl up into the thingy and shut your eyes.

. . .

You screech when you hear a thudding, something is pushing the large white plank of wood open and you see- Dave. It’s Dave! It's your lover!

Your tail is pounding in the water and up against the smooth white rock. Dave brought with him a large silver gift. It’s thin and holding something. You’re always so amused to see that things just say put, right where they are in the surface world and not float up. Jade told you all about how humans like to carry things in baskets they weave without seaweed or magic. And the baskets _don't need lids!_ It’s the wildest thing to you! 

Suddenly your heart sinks, you notice Dave's bring you a gift. Oh, you're so ill prepared for this! You were hoping that Dave's nest would be larger and you'd be given time to mentally prepare yourself. You can handle this, Dave is already your soulmate, you have the comfort of knowing that. You can get through this!

Dave settles down on the ground and holds up a large fish with both of his hands. It looks heavy and it's gray with a pinkish belly. You lightly prod it with your finger tip. You’ve never seen this kind of fish before. Dave tells you, “It’s a river Salmon.” You guess that is the name of the fish. You take it into both of your hands and kindly nod at the wonderful gift he brought you from the hunt. You suppose that Dave is the provider now, this is a magnificent fish and it doesn't even look scrapped at all! He must have killed it in a manner you're not familiar with. You examine it and then look up at him. Dave gestures that he wants you to eat it. 

You nod and tell him with gentle words, "danke schön."

You will show your appreciation for this gift, it will be the first of many. And you must eat like the dignified prince you are. You lift up your chin and then unhinge your jaw. It’s proper to eat a fish this size in two proper bites, head first, then tail. You down half the fish in one large gulp and savor its taste for a moment. Then finish the rest. You turn towards your lover and pay with Dave with his reward, a kind smile.

Dave blankly stares at you, maybe it isn’t the custom to just down an entire fish in such a manner. You tilt your head and slowly blink. Dave lightly lets out a laugh. You lightly laugh with him. You gift him with a bright smile, it feels so good to be able to laugh like this with someone new, you can only really laugh around family. You lightly hum a happy tune to yourself, smiling so hard your eyes are shut. You hear clinking so you open your eyes. Dave is shuffling a few things around on the silver thin basket. There are two tiny bowls without lids. You tilt your head as you watch liquid be poured into each of them. Dave holds one up for you to take while he lightly grasps the other. You delicately hold it like he is.

Dave takes his bowl up to his lips, Dave shows you how to… _eat it?_

You guess that humans have to sip water and liquids in order to inhale them. You follow his lead and sip it. It’s warm, almost hot. You smile at how funny that is. Humans can heat up liquid and they feel the need to. It’s so bizarre to you, that and the taste is funny. It's like... soft? You don't know, you've never had anything like it before!

Dave’s smiling. He’s resting on the floor and he looks so relaxed. You’re happy to see he’s proudly wearing your soul around his neck. Dave must have noticed you were staring at the golden chain, because he lightly clasped the gold housing your soul with the palms of his hands. Dave looks up at you and says some words you can’t comprehend… still you don’t need to to know what happens next.

You trace the edges of your body. You invite him to touch you with a look. You bite down on your bottom lip and lightly press against his chest that he’s _sooo_ ashamed off. Dave begins to turn a different shade, he’s turning red! Ha. Humans are so interesting! You continued to entice him by feeling up your entire chest and then tracing your fingers down your sides. You trace the edges of your tail with your fingertips and then feverishly begin to pant. You’re not used to this feeling, you started having these random fits of heat when you left home to travel to find your lover. Now it seems only fitting to show him how excited you've been for days for your courtship to finally solidify into something real. You believe the humans call it… marriage.

Dave suddenly stands up. He leaves the room and shuts the door. You tilt your head. Maybe you did not go through the proper steps to love making that humans do. Nevermind that, when he comes back he can show you the dance.

Then once he gives you his soul, the two of you shall finish your bonding. The two of you will be tied together, eternally. 


	5. the heart and the soul

“Rose.” You open her door and mutter through your teeth. “I need your help with some shit.”

“A knock would be appreciatied.” Rose was standing at her desk in her guest room, she's using some kind of small turkey baster to suck up the blood from a freshly killed… seagull. You’re not going to question it, especially not right now.

“So, I go into the bathroom and give John breakfast and he just horks dow-”

Rose interrupts with, “did Dirk give you permission to do so?”

“Did Dirk give _you_ permission to put a curse on the chef?” You squint your eyes at her.

“A simple hex, not a curse.” Rose muttered like you were listening. “He was rude to the other little chefs. I gave him a _temporary_ punishment and his jaw is no longer clamped shut, I don’t see what the issue is here.”

You didn't even listen to her. You just continue going off about the real matter at hand,

“Well anyway- I think that uh- John is…”

Rose answers before you even find the words to make your point. “He’s in heat because it’s the time of the year that his people find mates, he picked you and now he expects that you-”

“Don’t finish that thought.” You cut her off.

Rose puts down her tools and groans, she's still facing towards that dead bird as she speaks to you. “Dave. This is why Dirk told you not to speak with the mermaid in private. John's going to continue to try to seduce you and eventually… you’ll be prone like all seamen are to... _experiment.”_

“Rose.” You use a dry tone with her.

Rose finally turns her head around to look at you, “I know your attraction is only aimed at the same sex, but this is another species all together, Dave.”

You make a sour face, she seems pleased with your distress. Rose smiles as she says, “You wouldn’t know the first thing about _‘mating’_ regardless if John’s bottom was man or fish.” Rose turned back to her work and chuckled to herself, “best to stay away from the beast completely. We don’t want you getting crabs, now do we?”

You glared at her for calling John a beast. “Can you actually help me _or…?”_

 **“Or.”** Rose bluntly said that like that was an answer. You guess she can’t.

You take a deep breath through your nose and breathe it out. 

Rose continues her work as she tells you softly, “I'm sorry that I can not assist you in this. This is something you're going to need to get through on your own. John is going to do everything in his power to seduce you and you're either going to have to tough it out and keep it in your pants or... as I expect from you; cave."

This is such bullshit, you don't see why you can't just encourage John to go back to the sea and pick a mate better suited to... his needs. In all honesty you aren't sure how you're even supposed to _do_ anything with him, what with that tail and all, and John doesn't seem like he's used to the fact you have legs. You let out another gruff, exacerbated sigh. Rose doesn't seem shaken by this ordeal in the slightest,

"I don't know what to tell you, Dave. He chose you as a mate and he expects you fulfill your role, I understand this is stressful for you, but I don't see another option that you'd be willing to take."

You pinch your tear ducts with your finger and your thumb as you ask, "there's really no other option?"

Rose flat out tells you, "no." 

You offer, "what if, maybe- I just... hold out and we'll just see if John gets bored or something?" 

"Sorry to be the one to tell you this, Dave, but that won't work." Rose puts it as plainly as she can, "you have no other _real_ choice but to be his mate."

"Really?" You feel annoyed at this back-and-forth, nothing new is being said. "I have no other option... at all?"

"You do of course, but none that you would like to even hear about." Rose takes a moment to explain to you, "none that would be fair to John either." Oh. Never mind, she's not going to explain any of this to you because she thinks you can't stomach it or something, Dirk and Rose both think that you're sensitive. You're not. You just get pissed easy, even so, she's babying you again. 

You sigh and muster up the willpower to actually battle Rose on this. You finally get around to asking her, "why are you so sure he's just gonna keep at it?"

"Because he gave you his soul." 

"So? Can't he just... take it back?"

Rose shakes her head no, she stares down at the dead bird she somehow seized the life and blood of.

She bluntly responds with something you weren't expecting,

"It means the two of you are -in his culture- married.”

You feel the skin around your eyes tighten as you clench your jaw. 

You grunt out a sigh and grab onto the sides of your hair, “but I didn’t even do anything- how? What-”

You hear the door handle jimmy, Rose doesn’t even look up she simply says,

“No one ever knocks... Must be a family thing.”

Of course... It’s Dirk.

. . .

"I see you disobeyed me." Dirk looked dead ahead as he walked on. You both are walking back over to your room. It's not to far down this hall. This will be short... if you're lucky.

You look at your brother, despite the fact that Dirk isn't looking anywhere near you. "I just thought he needed something to eat-"

"So." Dirk cuts you off. "You made him tea... to eat?" Dirk sounds fed up with you, the kitchen staff must have ratted you out. You don't have a good reason for why you made him tea other than...

"I just wanted to show him something _human_ that wasn't a sword or a big porcelain prison." 

Dirk confidently hums to himself, like he suddenly just understood just how much of an idiot you are. 

"John must have seen that as an offering." Dirk nods to himself. "He thinks you're attempting to court him as a lover."

"Didn't you say that he thinks we're already lovers?" You correct him.

Dirk finally turns his head to look at you. "I meant that John thought you were, right then and there, attempting to get him _into bed."_

Your eyes widen as your bro stares at you. He looks annoyed, but something about his stoic face tells you he's filled with dread. Dirk starts up again,

"I told you to keep away from him and you said that you would tell me when you awoke."

"I- I..." You stutter, looking for the words. Your head is still reeling after hearing your own bro tell you some guy is trying to get _you_ into bed. No ones ever...

Dirk suddenly asks you, "did he attempt to seduce you, is that why you went to Rose?"

Your mouth is still hanging open, but you can't even form the words in your head.

You shake your head no as you say, "...yes."

You didn't even notice that you were standing outside your room's door until Dirk placed his hand onto the door knob. Dirk slowly pushed it open as he tells you, "Last night, Rose and I did more research. We both came to the same conclusion. You will have only two choices; assist me with researching mermaids, their culture and their ways, by accepting John's proposal."

"Or...?" You ask for the other option, hoping that it's reasonable.

"or you may return John back to his kind and reject him."

You close your eyes and then nod at those words, at that offer. "John should go back to his kind. He... He belongs in the ocean."

"Right." Dirk nods. "I thought you'd say something along those lines."

He pauses. You open up your eyes to look at him. Dirk was waiting on you to look at him before he spoke up again.

"It's to bad that isn't an option." Dirk turns open the door handle to your room. 

You follow behind him, dumbfounded by his words, "wha..."

You then raise your voice. "What do you mean?"

Dirk turns towards you and looks down at your necklace, John's soul.

You hold it in your hands. It's light, like air. It's rightfully John's, although he gave it to you... as an engagement gift. 

"You're wearing his soul and it is tainted with yours." Dirk loosely gestures towards your chest and the necklace. He continues, "apparently, Rose can see that it's... changed to match your aura or some such nonsense. Seems as if he is tethered to you, and he seems to believe that you two are both soulmates."

"Soulmates?" You're struggling to comprehend. Rose said the two of you are married in John's eyes and Dirk says John thinks you're what? ...soulmates? "Wait... wait... what exactly did he say?"

Dirk's answer is strange, "John didn't say much to me, just something about how your souls are already bonded and that now you just have to complete... a ritual." 

"Wait? What?" You still aren't registering anything Rose or Dirk have been saying to you. This all feels like a surreal dream. How is it that one moment you're in the ocean, trying to save a man from drowning and the next you're married to a mermaid- oh, you're probably still just in bed, knocked out from drowning in salt water and your older bro's trying to slap you awake. No way in hell would any guy who looks like that want a man like _you._

Dirk sighs and shrugs to himself as he tells you, "well, we did partake on this exhibition to study his culture. This is a benefit to us all."

Oh. That's right. You were literally sailing to the middle of the fucking ocean... just to study mermaids.

_'Well. Shit. Looks like this is really going down.'_

You look at the door. Dirk is still clasping the door handle, waiting on you to say something before he turns it. 

You shake your head and sigh. You have to admit to yourself this is really happening. If Dirk's telling you this shit, it must be true.

Rose might try to toy around with you like that, but Dirk wouldn't joke around with shit like this.

Dirk even warned you in advance not to speak to John on your own. Now you see that he was right to demand that of you, but he could have taken the time to explain things. When you woke up, you wanted to show John things were alright on board the ship, so you grabbed him something to eat, just to comfort him. After you gave him the fish and shared some honeybush tea with him, John jumped right into seducing you. You guess you must have given him a courting gift or something... and he must have liked it. Still, John got so horned up out of buckfucking nowhere. He was panting and practically begging you with those eyes to come over and do more than just touch him.

Dirk just said something about a ritual and Rose told you that John thinks you two are mates. You found John swimming around in open waters, looking for someone to mate with and then out of the blue John's tracing his whole body with his fingers and letting you know with his smile that he wants you to do the same. 

John gave you the only possession he had on him and although it's encased in gold, it feels lighter than air.

Yep. Everything lines up. 

You're married to a mermaid.

Even still, "I'd rather John be able to go back to his own kind." You tell your brother who is still waiting on you to speak.

Dirk finally opens the door to the bathroom. John hisses as the sight of your bro. John's stretching out his hands, you can see him swipe his hand towards Dirk. John's simmering with rage, hissing and snapping his sharp teeth at your brother just for showing his face. Once John gets a glimpse of you, you hear water splashing around as his tail smacks against the tub. John looks so happy to see you and eager to greet you. John's claws turn into welcoming hands, John's teeth are no longer sharp and instead he's giving you a pleasant, upbeat smile. 

Dirk walks in to the bathroom past you as he says, "I wouldn't mind him leaving either. Sorry to say, we don't have that option."

. . .

Dirk decided to be the mediator between you and your... husband. John reluctantly agreed. Dirk translated something John said about how John doesn't believe that Dirk's been translating properly and he wants someone more _'socially refined'_ to speak to him. Huh. Maybe John really is your soulmate.

Dirk is standing by the closed door. 

John's hands are neatly placed on his lap as he sits in the middle of the tub on his large tail. 

You smile softly at him as you sit right next to him on the floor.

As the two of you begin talking John decides to grab your hand and you let him hold onto it. John looks so refined and proper as he sits in a perfect, delicate way. Just like you always had to sit when you were being brought up. You guess you just fell into the habit of lazily lounging about cause right now you're just sprawled on the floor, looking as sluggish as you can next to someone as perfect as... you guess your husband.

You can't believe that John seems more hyped up to be married to you than you are to him. John seems like he's struggling to not smack his tail around, must be the real reason for why he's sitting on it. 

Dirk is saying a few more things in german to John. The two of them start up a conversation you have no hope of understanding. Suddenly, John turns to look at you. John looks like he's devastated. He turns his head and begins hissing at Dirk. John starts sprawling out his fins and bearing his sharp teeth as he spits words at Dirk. John looks mad, but once you hold onto John's hand and lightly stroke it, John's anger simmers down slightly. 

John looks back and forth between you and your bro, the little fins on the side of John's head that are splayed out are slowly relaxing and now they are hiding under his short, ebony hair. John stares at you blankly. Then, he gives you a light hiss. You smile at him and give him a light laugh. John tilts his head, like he's confused at why you found his tiny little hiss to be funny.

You ask Dirk as you stare at John, "what did you tell him?"

"I told him many things. First, I said that he'd be treated well, but _equal_ to my other guests on board." Dirk sounds annoyed.

"But..." You turn your head to look at your bro, "why did he hiss at you?"

"I told him he'd be an _equal."_ Dirk repeats.

You feel confused and you're sure your expression isn't hiding it.

"He said that was below his stature and he expects to be given the treatment that he wants _you_ to be given, and that it better be good."

You lightly laugh. John's already making demands. Dirk almost lets slip a smile when he says, "he's high maintenance. No wonder why you like him." You tilt your head as if to shrug. Dirk tells you before you even lift your head back up, "I think he may have a higher stature than he leads on..."

"Huh?" You ask him to clarify with a look.

"John didn't say anything per se to make me think this, but he scoffed at me when I introduced myself and spoke about our family. Specifically, he scoffed when he heard our brother's title."

"Maybe... they don't have monarchies in John's culture." You look off to the side.

"Then why would he know what a duke is?" Dirk doesn't ask you, he's only making a point.

You let out a sigh. It's not like in the current era the monarchy even matters all that much. Your oldest brother is the overseer of the province you left. When you were growing up you never had any expectation put on you to do anything other than behave. Your two older brother's are twins and fought their whole lives over who'd have the right to rule your provence after your parent's death. Dirk lost, Or rather... won. You don't think he really wanted it, neither did your other brother. You always thought they'd love the power and the title, no... they saw it the same way you did, as unnecessary responsibility. You and Dirk now represent your province and your kingdom by traveling across the globe and making expeditions to 'understand' the magic existing in the world with a rejected court witch. Rose seems proud of that title, Dirk seems proud of his findings and he drags you along to bring more positive attention towards your family name on your older brother's behalf. Almost like a favor to him as he sits through boring meeting after boring meeting. You suppose you're in a better place than he is, especially now... looking at John... You place your hand on top of his head and then you cup his cheek and rub his face with your thumb.

John holds onto your wrist, he shuts his eyes and softly smiles. John speaks a few soft words, he opens his eyes and glares over at the gist of where Dirk is standing.

"It's things like this here..." Dirk tells you, "that makes John seem certain of your loyalty to him."

"I am loyal to him." You don't hesitate to say it.

"I mean loyal like a husband." Dirk nods.

You let out a small sigh. "I guess we should start actually talking now."

"Alright." Dirk gives you the floor to speak.

"John..." You try to think of what to say. You dwell on what Dirk told you, something about John having no option to return home. You ask this as not just a question to John, but to your brother as well,

"Would you be able to go back to your own kind?"

Dirk translates your words for John before you even finish speaking.

John shakes his head no, "ausgeschlossen"

Dirk tells you, "I think... he's saying that he never will."

You ask John directly, "Why?"

"Warum?" Dirk translates for you.

John gives you a soft smile and shakes his head.

John asks you, "Es ist wichtig für Sie?"

"I don't think John wants to answer." 

You feel frustrated. Dirk is hardly even trying to translate. 

"Tell him this, tell him this exactly for me. 'You should be able to go back to your own kind.'"

Your brothers sighs, you watch as he translates with a sour look on his face. Like he's agreeing to do as you asked. 

Dirk translates and then listens to John's words and then tells you, "he refuses to leave your side. He doesn't see a reason to go back to the sea... in any capacity."

You look at John. You can't see why he wouldn't want to return home. He must have left behind family, someone who loved him. Something worth returning to.

You can't honestly believe that you're worth giving up an entire life. John's really throwing that all away, just to be with you. You don't want that for him. You ask Dirk to translate for you without even thinking, "why would you give up everything to be trapped in a tub?"

John smiles softly at you and replies. "Ich bin freier als je zuvor."

You hear his words repeated for you and you alone, "I am freer than I've ever been."

. . .

You needed a moment. You had to take a breather. Suddenly the air got stale in the room, and your palms started to sweat. You couldn't think about anything other than... just... robbing John of his life, of his home, of everything. 

You took some deep breaths, thankfully no one was in the halls to watch you try to stage off your freak out. You feel this small aching pain in the back of your mind... when you came out here, you were stressed out to hell and back over robbing John of his life and now you feel a small anxious feeling of worry for... your own well being. You can't understand it, are you going crazy or something? Why are you worried about your own mental state? You never felt this fucking way before and it's starting to freak you out even more.

You hear footsteps approaching the hallway you're in, no way in hell you're staying out here. You're starting to feel like standing out in the hallway alone is only making your thoughts worse anyway. You might as well go try to hold John back from sloughing your bro for asking John some off color question. 

You open your bathroom door, looks like Dirk has been standing in the middle of them room and talking with John the whole time. The two of them doing a back-and-forth as Dirk hovers over your bathtub. John's looking slightly unnerved. He gave Dirk a small hiss at something your bro said. Dirk gives John a smirk, like the response was funny. You ask, "what were you two just talking about?"

Dirk looks behind him and over towards you, "I just finished asking about what he thinks of the room. He told me the small _balls of fire in the shells_ had burnt his hand earlier. I tried to correct him and tell him that they're called lamps, and he hissed at me."

"He likes doing that." You smile sweetly at John. You can still see his little fins sticking out from under his wet strands of hair. 

"Yes. Apparently where he comes from that's not the usual manner of speaking." Dirk explains as he gestures over towards John, "he said to me that he's trying to be his real self around us... that he's not used to speaking informally and honestly wants to have a dialogue with me. He's hissing at us _humans_ just to let us know that he's not to be messed around with."

"Well, I like that attitude." 

Dirk answers with, "he knows, he's well aware."

You look over at John, who gives you a light, shy wave. "He is?"

"Apparently, John can sense how you're feeling because the two of your souls are mostly bonded... He can't understand you, but he understood you left because you were feeling overwhelmed and it made him worried... did you feel John's stress?"

"I..." You think back on your feelings in the hall, how you were randomly worried over your own frame of mind. "I might have?" 

"Ah. Well. That's another conversation I will have to have with Rose later." Dirk takes a mental note and then moves on, you bet he isn't even going to include you in that conversation he's going to have. "John also told me that he's not used to being on the surface for this long."

"Oh..." You feel a twinge of dread at hearing those words, "is he gonna be okay?" 

"He just told me a moment ago that he doesn't need water to live."

"Really?" You look back over at Dirk.

Suddenly John hissed. You turn back to look at John, he looks menacing. Showing his teeth to Dirk like a snake ready to strike, and then John looks up at you with a small, gentle smile.

Dirk explains his thoughts, "I think... that I'm eating up into your time with him. He wants you to focus on him, not me."

"Huh? Why would you think-"

John hissed at Dirk again, you turned your head to look at John and John gave you a sweet, innocent smile.

You turn your head away and say nothing. You just wanna see if you can feel.... something. You don't really feel anything at the moment. Then you turn your head to get a look at John, once you do, you feel a swelling on your chest. Not in your chest, but on it. Like something is pulling it up and down, and twisting it this way and that. Like you're completely and utterly in love... 

You stare at John as you speak to your brother standing next to you, "is it... normal for mermaids to fall in love at first sight?"

"He says he's seen you before."

"What?"

"In a vision he had before his journey to these waters." Dirk changes the subject immediately, "he's quite talkative, be thankful you can't understand him."

You huff a sigh out of your nose. You think you'd do anything to be able to talk to John right about now, just to apologize for how Dirk must come off to him. This is not the impression of humanity you want to leave with John.

Dirk breaks the silence, "well, would you like to talk with him more before I take my leave?"

Looks like he's tired of standing in front of your shitter. 

You kneel down before John. You thought it over. Maybe you can make things work. At least just for now.

You speak to John directly, 

"If we're going to be... _together..._ we need to take things slow."

Dirk translates. John nods his head as he stares into your eyes, his own irises are twinkling like stars. You continue, "I'm saying we're gonna do this one step at a time... the way I think you deserve to be treated." John claps his hands together once he hears those words.

"I get the feeling that you're already in love with me... but we can't just _jump_ into _anything_ yet."

After Dirk translates, John tilts his head, he asks Dirk a question about what you just said. Dirk responds and it seems like he's trying to retranslate exactly the jist of what you're saying. You guess maybe it doesn't translate well- Oh! Suddenly John snaps and hisses at Dirk. John starts yelling a few things, too fast for you to even register the syllables. You hold John's hand and try to sooth him but to no avail. John just keeps hissing and trying to claw at your brother. Dirk keeps trying to explain himself or rather, your words, over John's shouting. Shit. It seems like John just decided he really is gonna start clawing at Dirk. You grab onto John's sides and hold him back. He's half-fighting you now. John wants to claw Dirk's eyes out, you can feel it. Feel it right on your chest, a little ball is swirling with winds of wrath and rage. As you hold John back it seems more like John's fighting himself than you. John's probably picking between injuring your brother to protect his pride or standing down to protect your feelings... he knows how much you love your bro, even if he's a straight up fucking asshole.

"Why is he doing this?!" You call out to Dirk over John's rantings.

"I assume that this is how his people handle a spat with a _human_." Dirk narrows his amber eyes as he looks down at John. Dirk's arms still resting behind his back. 

"What did you tell him?!" You keep trying to hold John back.

"The gist of what you said, something like the two of you had to hold a few _things_ off." Dirk sighs as he explains, "and then John asked me if that meant... well, I knew what you meant. So I told him that you have no interest in mating with him anytime soon. And now, it seems that John believes that I'm mistranslating on purpose to keep the two of you apart."

You don't believe that Dirk would do that, sure he can be a bit protective of you, but Dirk wouldn't have an interest in keeping you two apart. Dirk gains more through letting you two be together, you don't see a reason for why Dirk would turn away a mermaid from rooming with you, John is the very thing Dirk came here to research. And if Dirk was going the _overprotective brother_ route, he would have just demanded John take back his soul and leave. 

Still, John doesn't know Dirk like you do. John keeps hissing and scrapping at Dirk as you held his tiny body back. Johns furiously showing every sharp tooth he has in his mouth. Suddenly two extra fins flail out from behind John's hair, they are deep blue and faintly purple on the ends. The two of them are long and large. Looks like John's not playing around. John spits his words at Dirk, you can tell by the tone alone they are venomous and full of bile.

"Wow." Dirk nods his head as John spats several words at him.

"He has quite the vocabulary."

You try to hold back a smile, seems like John is cursing Dirk out. Coming from someone as refined as John looks, you like the show John's making that he's not going to put up with Dirk's shit. Still, Dirk isn't giving him any.

John continues to hiss and throw what you assume to be insults around.

Dirk translates for you, "seems that John doesn't believe any man would ever reject his body."

"Tell him I'm not rejecting him." You keep holding John back.

"I already did." Dirk isn't even moves by the display you're making to protect him.

"Well... can you say it... politely?" You sound like you're begging Dirk to stop this instead of the man with literal claws you're holding back.

"I'll attempt to tell him that you do have an _interest_ in him, but you'd rather court him at a slow pace, and..." Dirk says with a small hint of disgust. "get to know him first. We'll see how he interprets that."

You give Dirk the smallest smirk you can muster as a thank you. Dirk translates those words to John, 

John starts nodding with his entire body at Dirk's words as he stares at him. You let him go, then John grabs the side of the tub and leans forward to get a better look at Dirk. Then John shoots his head around to look at you. John tilts his head as he asks you something foreign.

Dirk translates, "he's asking if you're going to show him more _human_ things, and then build him a nest after the two of you understand each other's ways."

"A nest?" Once again, you don't understand.

Dirk doesn't seem to either, "I'll ask..."

The two exchange words for a short while. Then John turns back to you, John mostly talking to you and not Dirk, John's happily talking to you with large hand gestures, acting like you can understand his words. You nod along with what John's saying, even though you're in no way listening. Dirk stops the conversation by cutting John off. He speaks to you directly,

"Apparently in his culture, mermaids are expected to build nests for their mates out of sand and... with their tails?" Dirk sounds slightly confused by John's words. John speaks again for a brief moment. Dirk says "ah." Like he just forgot a point he wanted to make and John reminded him. "-and John expects that you show him gifts, he just said that he liked the fish you brought him."

Dirk asks John a quick question. John shakes his head no and answers with a smile. Suddenly that violent, angry demeanor turned into a grateful smile, like John and Dirk are all of a sudden the best of friends. You lightly laugh as you watch the two talk. Dirk hums to himself and then translates the conversation to you.

"I assumed that gift was to prove your wealth and what you could bring to the relationship, instead it seems that John thinks that you killed it to prove your prowess as a hunter."

You narrow your brow and give Dirk a confused look.

Dirk slightly shakes his head, "John didn't say much, only other thing he mentioned was that he'd like to see how you killed it without leaving any marks."

"Guess... we'll have to take him fishing someday." You shrug. You're not sure how long this is going to last but... you wouldn't mind being married to someone like John, just so long as he can come and go as he pleases, you don't want to hold him prisoner. "Can you uh... ask him how he likes the bathtub?"

"He already mentioned he thinks it's an unusual nest, now I understand that he thinks of it as your mating ground, so to speak."

"I..." You struggle to understand, you look over at John. He's cheerfully smiling at you with a closed-mouth grin. John suddenly pecks your cheek again and then covers his face, like he's embarrassed. 

John's giggling wildly at the thought of being with you... in _that_ way.

You can feel your face turn completely flushed. John can see how fucked look, you're sure he can feel how fucked you feel too. You feel the ball on your chest pounding like it has a heart of it's own.

Dirk turns his back to you two and begins to make his leave by turning the door handle. "Dave, I expect that when you speak with John, it's in the presence of others... he won't try anything unless the two of you are alone." 

John says a few more sweet words, aimed more-so at Dirk this time.

Your brother lets out a light huff.

You ask, "what did he say?"

"John's apologizing. He says this is just a misunderstanding." Your brother sounds annoyed at the thought.

You turn your head and pay John a smile for trying to reconcile with an asshole like your bro. John pecks your lips and then goes back to giggling same as before. He looks like a completely different mermaid now, his claws and sharp teeth are gone. Those fins he was showing before are fully hidden by his hair, you could probably spot them again if you could just... brush through those strands. John takes your hand and places it on his head. He's much more in tune with reading your feelings than you are his. 

John softly breathes a few soft, light words onto your lips, "ich liebe dich, Liebling."

After you place a light kiss on John's lips as a thank you for whatever he said, you get up and head out of the room with Dirk. You can't risk John trying to seduce you again... Rose is right, you don't know if you can resist.


	6. Scheiße

You're resting in what the Dirk human calls, _the tub._ He also said he told you the word in Dave's language. Oh, you wish you could speak with Dave, instead you're stuck talking with someone as rude and as improper as Dirk. Even so, you don't need to stoop to down his level and speak so informally. Dirk can be blunt and unceremonious, but he's maybe just not good at speaking your language. You should have considered that. You are from two completely different worlds, you're lucky that someone even speaks your language at all. 

When Dirk translated your darling love's words, you thought he was feeding you lies and expecting that you just sit there and blindly accept it... now that you've had time to dwell on it, you can see how sensitive Dave's soul is. Dirk was just trying to explain to you that this kind of commitment is a big deal to his younger brother. Perhaps you shouldn't have said all of those things to Dave's older brother, you really laid it on him. You said a dozen vile curses, most of which you spoke in your main language instead of the one you usually use to speak with the humans. Seems that Dirk wasn't listening anyway, he just kept looking down on you with those cold eyes and speaking with that hideous monotone voice. It was so deep, it disturbed you. You could feel in your soul that Dave was getting a little kick out of you insulting his brother and trying to claw at Dirk's eyes... but you could also feel that it would hurt Dave's heart if you hurt his family, so you held yourself back, for Dave's sake.

You still can't believe that Dirk wasn't planning on giving you and Dave the highest standard of treatment! Then again... you don't want Dave knowing just yet that you're a prince. Dave already seems concerned about you going back home to your family and your people. You don't want to return to your kingdom, you don't mind leaving that old life of yours behind... even still, you're going to miss Jade and your dad, and even your grandma. You can never return to them... not now that your soul belongs to a human. Your nana would be furious and your father would be devastated... you do believe that Jade would think it's astounding... at least at first. 

You instantly knew when you saw Dave that this was the right thing to do, that this is where your soul will lie forever, even so, you committed one of the highest taboos for not just your ranking but for your kind. Your heart and soul now belongs to a human. You were always raised with the expectation to kill humans on sight, you understood why they were a threat to your kingdom, but you didn't see reason to claw them all to shreds. Your sister was always against it, Jade always wanted to know everything about humans and would do anything to find out as much as she could. Jade secretly kept a collection of human trash she found that seemed to be of interest to her. Anything ranging from little copper circles and long silver chains to unusual shaped things. You had no idea what any of them could be. You didn't take much interest in them, still you kept her secret. Usually you'd go with her swimming around open waters, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Old fishing rope would sometimes line the surface of the water. You'd always want to go up and inspect it but your father warned you against it. You have to listen to him, his word is law you suppose... and you always thought he knew best, but you had to listen to your instincts, like a good mermaid. Your heart was telling you to go towards the ship and then to travel around with Dave in the vessel. You bet Jade would kill to be in your position. Her mate is probably just another mermaid, not interested in hearing anything about humans whatsoever. Too bad for whoever Jade's mate is, your twin sister never took an interest in other mermaids at all unless they had something wise to say. Oh Jade would make you listen to some of the elders for hours go on and on about the dangers of humanity, she always saw them as amazing tales of how wondrous the surface world was... instead of the horror stories your dad made them out to be.

You sigh. You guess you shouldn't dwell on the past seeing that it's not a part of your life anymore. Now you're going to eat, sleep and _breathe_ like a human! You're going to do your best to make a life here! Even if it's in this tub forever. You feel so determined to make this life work, not just for your new lover, but for yourself! You finally get to be your real self! You get to laugh and cry and insult anyone you want without any consequence cause Dave will shield you from anything! You always felt how protective Dave is over you the moment you first spoke with him, you feel it coursing through your soul that he's worried over you and if you'll like it here. Your love is so adorable. You just want to kiss him all over and then give him what he wants... but no... the Dirk human said that Dave wants to play things slow... perhaps this is how humans usually court their mates or maybe you're just doing things this way because Dave is shy and nervous about touching your -clearly perfect- body. Either or, you understand that Dave wants to treat you well and there is something sweet about Dave wanting to get to know you as a person before mating with you. You quiet like that. It's unique. 

Suddenly you hear another pounding at the wooden white plank of wood. It slides open and right away you see your love. You start slapping your tail against the tub and you wait for Dave to walk over to you. You wrap your arms around him and pull him down into your chest as you kiss the top of his head. Dave holds your soul in his palm like he's protecting your soul from getting crushed between the two of you, _like it would anyway,_ the damn thing is much sturdier than he probably thinks. You lift up Dave's head by holding up his chin and plant kisses all over his face. 

You hear something clicking against the ground. 

"You weren't kidding..." You heard woman's voice.

You look up. You can see the witch come towards you and your lover. 

You pull back slightly, still clinging onto your darling Schätzchen. You're afraid of her touch. You think Dave can feel it.

"Whoa." Dave lifted up his free hand as he asks her kindly to "ease up a bit."

The woman stops moving, she's carrying something strange on her... Something you've never seen before. She simply rests her hands in front of her body and gives you a polite bow.

You continue to hold onto your lover as you slightly lower your head, only slightly mimicking the gesture. You must never bow down deeper than your inferiors, but then again... on land you're a simple mermaid, not a prince. 

The witch continues to walk into the room. She lowers herself to the ground and rests besides your love.

Dave slightly pulls away from you and the witch tells you, "mein Name ist Rose."

Your eyes light up, if she can translate for you instead of Dirk this will all go much more smoothly,

Suddenly Rose struggles to tell you, "Ich spreche Ihre... Sprache nicht gut."

Oh. Looks like she doesn't really speak your language well. 

You change to another, "hoe zit het nu?"

Rose turns her head to look at Dave, he gives her a small shrug.

Dave lifts up something that he brought in with him. You didn't even notice that he had some human fabric on him. He uses it to dry off your hands. You happily allow him too. You guess that human's like to be dry so he thinks you'll like to be dry too. You think it's sweet that he's taking care of you in accordance to his culture's ways.

The witch lifts up the large brown object she carried in. Rose rests it on the tub as she shows it to you. It has thin small slivers of something smooth like sand. You feel it with your hands. It has black marks all across each small thin sliver. You don't understand what it is.

"I get he's never seen a book before... but do you like honestly think he can like read this shit?"

"No. I don't. I'm only attempting to see if he recognizes any of the images."

Rose takes the object with her hands and pulls it towards her. She turns over each individual sliver and then points down at a... wow! It's a likeness of coral polyp. You blink, somehow the sliver captured the corals bright yellow color and the humans are showing off the strength of their magic, you suppose. You guess the witch is showing you that she can capture the sheer image of anything and place it on these small slivers. The little black marks are probably incantations. You heard that humans speak in a written language and can communicate through etching things down with black strokes! Humans are so fascinating! You watch as the witch shows you different images of coral and sea fans, sea weeds and sea grass. You stop once you see a particular weed. You point at it desperately. You keep poking it with your fingers, hoping that maybe the witch can make it appear from the slivers or maybe that she will just bring some to you. 

Rose says "ja." Just a simple yes. You guess that she understands that you want it. You hope she can bring it to you along with a few other things you can use to make a spell. You start going through the slivers searching until... yes! You found a specific type of sea whip you need to make something special! You point at it and say her name. "Rose." You hope that she will bring you both things.

"Okay." Rose nods. "Jawohl."

Your love asks Rose, "what does he want with those?" 

The witch looks at your love to tell him, "I already told you that mermaids are more adapt with magic than human's are, if I give him ingredients to cast a spell, well... the lord only knows what he will be able to do with these..."

Rose looks down at the slivers with the image of a special kind of sea whip plastered on it. She looks like she's memorizing what you asked for. She's probably going to look and see if she can grab some. For her sake you hope that she has some on this ship, if she has to go out into the waters for these, there is a chance she won't come back. 

Rose suddenly shuts the silvers closed. She hands the object to Dave and he covers the object with the fabric he dryed you off with and then Dave sits directly on top of it.

Suddenly, Dirk comes into the room. 

You give him a light wave of your hand and then a small hiss, just to let Dirk know that you're still unsure if you trust him or not. Rose lightly laughs at your hiss. You stare at her for a moment, she's delicately covering her black lips with her pale hand. You tilt your head as you give her a small, delicate hiss, just for her to know she can't mess with you. Rose continues to snicker at your threat. You turn your head to look at your lover. Dave pays you a small kiss on the cheek for looking at him. You snuggle up to his neck and hold close to your darling. 

Dirk asks the two of them, "why are you both in here instead of in the hall like I asked?"

Rose answers, "I wanted to introduce myself, I didn't see any harm in going in with Dave. And look..." Rose looks over towards you and lifts up her hand, she gestures in such a way that she wants to hold onto yours. You give her your hand and she lightly places a kiss on your fingers. You give her a large grin, someone knows how to greet you. 

"...he likes me." Rose tells the tall man standing over all of you.

"He just hissed at you." Dirk speaks in a low tone at the witch.

The witch gives Dirk a small chuckle, speaking in a language you don't understand she says, "perhaps because I didn't introduce myself properly to him." Rose clicks her tongue to the roof of her mouth and tssks. "He has such lovely jewelry doesn't he? Such a high status symbol... Why, I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if he was royalty." Rose glances over at you. She bows her head and you don't pay any mind to it. People bow their head more often than they speak with you.

You look up at Dave's older brother. He seems distracted by the witch and her presence, Dirk's staring down at her... almost like he's still dwelling on her words. Rose is taking more of an interest in you than Dirk you're afraid, but of course she would... you're quite the sight. You smile delicately at her as you return to snuggling Dave's chest. He's so nervous about you touching his chest but you can feel in your heart that Dave wants nothing more than to hold you close and kiss you all over. You don't understand why he doesn't... but maybe it's rude for humans to display affection like that in the presence of company. It's rude in your culture too... but you don't care! You're going to live like you've _never_ lived before! You're going to live with humans and you can learn all about their strange fantastic ways! You're sure that Dave can show you what ropes are used for and how to hunt as good as wonderiously as he can! Hmm... maybe human's use magic to fish! Now that's pretty low brow... oh wait.. Dave can't use magic. You can feel it in his aura. The black magic witch's soul is tainted with filth and evil incantations... but Dave's is clean a pure, almost like a child's. You kiss his cheek, you can't refuse, he's just too cute to you!

Rose and Dirk are continuing to eye you. Suddenly Dirk asks you something strange. He asks you about why you wanted to be accommodated in higher standing than his other guests. Shit. Maybe the black magic witch can read minds. 

You give Dirk a simple, sweet look, telling him that it wasn't for you, but for your love. You nod and confess that you think Dave deserves better, that he should be given the most luxurious treatment available... but apparently, Dave chose this room. Dave preferred things to be simpler. Dave could have had a room as large as Dirk's but he gave it up to give to the simple evil witch. You scoff. You secretly wanted a better room. You huff. Suddenly Dave speaks up,

"What did you just tell him?"

"I said that you picked this room yourself." Dirk responded with annoyance in his tone.

"Oh." Dave focuses his attention on Dirk and not you, "he seems upset."

"Upset like how?" Rose asks Dave, sounding like she's amused.. 

"Like annoyed." Dave looks back at you and gives you a bright smile, a smile showing just how funny and cute he thinks you are. "I can feel it."

You don't need your souls to be bonded to know that that look Dave is giving you is one of peer admiration, one of love. You press your lips up to Dave's and he doesn't part away from you, not even in the presence of others. You part first and you spare a few seconds before letting yourself slip into the tub. You sigh and melt into the water. You submerge yourself completely and hold your hands up to your face as you cheer. You start giggling with glee and splashing your tail, you hope the damn thing is staying underwater this time, you didn't want to let slip your composure in front of the Rose and Dirk humans. You had enough of that! You decide to pull yourself up and happily grin at Dave... 

Dave is completely soaked! from head to toe! The Rose human's bangs are sticking to her face. She's so upset! She's crying black tears! Oh no! You didn't mean too.

"Es tut ma leid." You start sinking into the tub. You feel so sorry for what you did to her... you don't want her to curse you... you don't know anything about black magic... "bitte sei nicht böse mit mir..."

You couldn't see Rose's eyes under her bangs, she must still be able to see though cause she glanced over at Dirk. Dirk's entire upper half was covered with... you try to hold back your laughter. _**Sea foam!**_

You lose it! You start bawling and howling with laughter. Pointing at Dirk for being covered with... with... "AH-hahahaha!" You start crying! Tears are pouring from your eyes like you're a turtle on land! 

Dave starts lightly laughing too, he's doing a much better job at hiding that he thinks it's funny than you are. 

Rose turns back to look at you. She's frowning, like she's trying hard to disapprove of your actions, but she honestly thinks it's hilarious.

Dave asks through his scattered laughs. "Where did that foam even come from?"

Dirk turns around and before he slams the door shut he answers,

"I have had enough of this beast and his _literal_ shit today."


	7. hunger

After Dirk stormed out of the room you couldn't hold back your laughter. You know you shouldn't be laughing at that, but John's laughter is contagious. John was howling so much at what he did to Dirk, he was wheezing and he doesn't even breathe air! Rose's entire face was soaked, her make up was running and she turned to give you a frown. You drag out the book with the towel still covering it and hand it to her. 

Rose sighs and begun to dab her face with the towel as she held onto the book. John continues to laugh his head off while you ask Rose, "you got the shit he asked for on board?"

"Most likely." Rose used the towel to ring her bangs as she spoke, "I had my room stocked to the brim with everything I could ever need."

"Surprised Dirk let you do that." This is your family's old ship after all, he doesn't like when people move things around or cram rooms full of shit.

"I didn't, he did." Rose explains, "Dirk thought the mermaids might become an issue for us, he figured to invest in what I suppose he figured would be ammunition for me to use if things were to turn south..." She trails off like she was going to say something else, instead she looks over at John, still losing his shit. "I don't think we have to worry about John doing anything worse than splash us... I'll gather everything for him shortly. We'll bring him the ingredients later when Dirk isn't so close by." 

It goes without saying that you're both going to keep this a secret from Dirk. You want John to have the opportunity to do or make whatever he'd like while he's on the ship and you can see your brother wanting to limit John's freedoms out of fear John might curse him, a fear he wouldn't have if he was only polite when speaking to John you're certain of that. It's better to ask for forgiveness than permission when it comes to your brother. And you want to see what John does, part of you hopes he's going to attempt to make something for you. If you and John can give each other gifts, it'll help your relationship grow. That and since mermaids are so intune with magic, you want to allow for the chance for John to express himself in a way that feels natural to him, plus it would get John to trust Rose more if John is allowed to do things like make spells and cast magic.

You're sure that John will learn to trust all of you more once he can see the ship too and get to know his surroundings. This must all be so foreign to him and you want to make sure that he feels safe and makes himself at home for the time he's going to be spending abroad... even though you didn't take a luxury room but you two still have everything you need. Still, you'll be sure to show him around later, then hopefully he might feel comfortable sleeping in the tank Dirk built for him instead of that tub. It must not be comfortable to sit in cause John keeps struggling to turn his body around. Although, right now John is still laughing his ass off. Rose is still drying off her hair and you're still watching John like a lovestruck idiot. 

You stand up and besides Rose. She covers the book in the towel again. Rose starts to head out. You walk over to the tub and grab the biggest towel you have off the wall rack. 

"Come on." You start lifting John up and into your arms. You do your best to try to wrap the towel around him as your carrying him but he bombards you with kisses for simply being near him. John wraps his hands around you, your back is pushed up against the wall as you try your best to hold John steady, but he just can't stop kissing you. He seems so thrilled to even be close to you... and you're sure that he knows in his heart that the feeling is mutual.

. . .

It took about ten minutes to get John to settle down and into your arms, you had to ask Rose to help dry him off. She gave you a look cause her entire face was still fucked, but your new lover was a little damp so he gets priority. He gets special treatment. And now that John is all dry and got all his excitement out, you're carrying John around the ship and Rose went back to her room to fix her makeup.

You brought him through the halls and he marveled all all of the doors and occasional small portraits on the walls. One was of your family when you were younger. You bounce him up a little bit in your arms while you adjust John in your hands. You're holding his bottom and you want to angle him a little better so he can get a good look at the painting. It's you and all of your brothers when you were younger. You had to be about eight when it was painted. Your parents couldn't find the time to join you, but both your brothers for some reason wanted to get a painting done with all of you together. This one is just a copy, the real one _the duke of your province_ has hidden somewhere in his manner. John squints his eyes as he gets a closer look, he can see the boy in the painting has blood red eyes and a faint smile. John whips his head back to look at you and back at the painting. He lifts up his finger and points several times. You nod, "that's me." 

"Sie bist so süß!" John gently cusps your chin with his palms as he plants kisses along your cheek. John goes back to marveling at the little picture. You want to ease him into understanding how humans make art and how they live. Just taking everything one step at a time is a good idea. You're just in a simple hall gazing at a childhood photo of yourself with your... husband. You have to admit you're still trying to ease yourself into this as well. 

John's stomach growled. You felt a bit hungry yourself. You guess now is a better time than ever to show John what humans eat... maybe you can get something from the dining pavilion and bring it back to him.

. . .

"Here you are." You settle John down in his chair as he looked down at the small table ahead of him. You lean John against the wall slightly. You place a kiss on his head and try to pull away but John is clinging onto your hand. You gently move around the table and allow John to keep holding onto you. 

When you brought John back into your room and in your tub, he wrapped his arms around you and refused to let go. When he finally accepted that he needed to let you go you didn't take two steps before turning around and picking John up again. You couldn't bring yourself to leave him after feeling his sadness well up in your chest. 

The ships only server approached you as soon as you sat down across from John, "hello, sir." Nitram spoke to you but he was staring at John, he looked more than pleased to see an actual mermaid just sitting down waiting to be served. Nitram gave John a smile and bowed his head, like he does to every guest on the ship. John lifted up his hand. Looks like John expects everyone to kiss his rings. You lightly laugh at the gesture. Nitram gladly took John's hand and shook it. John gave him a double-take. You could feel on your chest a feeling of more than just confusion, it can only be described as _"what the fuck?"_ You start laughing and wiping a single tear out of your eyes. John looks over at you like he doesn't think that is funny at all. You can just tell that John expects the platinum experience. You're sure you can offer that to him, but you don't think that's the side of humanity he should see. You'd rather him actually have real fun, like this. John must feel what's in your heart, John gives you a little smile. 

Nitram apologizes suddenly, "I'm... uh... sorry if I... in any way offended him."

"Don't worry about it." You brush off his concerns. John looks over at Nitram and lifts up his hand again. You tell Nitram, "just kiss it."

Nitram lowers himself and gently presses his lips up to John's golden rings. John seems pleased with the correction to Nitram's slip up. John takes back his hand and then sits straight and forward, like a nobleman should. You meanwhile have been slouching like the slob your parents never wanted to see you become, but eh... you always think they knew you were at heart a layabout. You look over at Nitram and nod at him, giving him the okay to speak, like Nitram always has to wait on from Rose and Dirk. No matter how many times you tell him that you're a friend and you won't flip shit, he will never fucking get the message. Not that you blame him. At one point in time, Nitram split water from a pitcher right onto Dirk's lap, Dirk gave him a death glare and reminded him that if he's fired on this ship his servange package is a kick in the ass and he'll have the savage waves of the sea to carry him back home, you think it was something along those lines... all you can remember is Nitram standing in the hallway after Dirk threatened him. You were trying so hard to calm down Nitram's tears after that. Yeah... Nitram was a klutz and could be a bit absent minded, but he was actually a kind, well traveled guy. You enjoyed having him as company on the ship, that is... whenever he got a chance away from his many duties to speak with you.

Nitram's silent right now, however. You clear your throat to break his focus away from your husband. 

"Oh! I uh... I'm sorry, Dave." Nitram let out an awkward laugh.

"Don't worry about it, I understand." You look over at John, damn mermaid is breathtaking, "he's a sight to see."

Nitram nodded his head in agreement. John tilted his head like he was trying to understand your words. John turned his head towards Nitram and Nitram stared at him as he asked you,

"what would you and your friend here like from the kitchen today, Dave?" 

"Can you bring me a sample of everything you're making right now?" You don't think it's completely unreasonable to ask that, given the circumstances. "I just want to find out what he likes."

"Yes. I would like to know as well." Rose creeps up behind you, silent like always. You turn your head to see that she's already got a notepad and a pen in hand. She's jotting down a few notes.

"Rose." You turn to look at her, "this is... just between the two of us, so we can get to know each other a little."

Rose lightly scoffs at that incitement of yours, "you can't even speak with him, I doubt he thinks of this as a date."

"Well, why not ask?" You backsass her. 

"I don't know the language well enough to ask, on top of that... I don't think that John would have such a thing in his culture." Rose looks over at Nitram whose sweating just at the sight of her, "why are you still here?"

Nitram turns around and starts heading for the kitchen door, "I'm sorry, ma'am- miss! miss!" Nitram corrects himself and heads into the kitchen. He's scared shitless of her, as is the rest of everyone aboard. 

Rose hums a chuckle to herself. She just loves terrifying the staff. Rose directs her attention to you again, "I'll leave you and your _lover_ alone if you promise me that you'll take note what he likes and what he doesn't for me." 

You nod, "I was planning on doing that anyway."

Rose walks across the marble floors and it seems that you're left alone with John again. John's looking around the room, he's marveling at the chandelier and it's golden lights. John's attention drifts around the full room, he's taking in the bright white shine of the marble floor and the birch wood walls and ceiling. When John's eyes fall onto the table again he runs his hands along the soft, tablecloth. It's smooth like butter and perfectly stainless. John pets the cloth for a while, maybe you should find him some clothes that are just as soft. You're sure you have something in your room suitable for him... plue you think if it's yours he'd love it. You feel a blush creep across your pail face, turning it pink. John looks up at you. He must feel what's in your heart. You open your mouth to speak, but then you remember that he can't understand you. John's still leaning against the wall. He slowly blinks his lides, hiding his sapphire eyes and then revealing them just as slowly. You don't like that look, it's doing things to you and you don't like that he knows that. You look away and John laughs. He hunches over the table and presses a finger up to your chest. He's just toying around with you. In John's mind, the two of you are as close as you two can possible be and consummating your relationship is all his mind can think about. You can feel it on your chest, his soul feels warm, almost hot. You're praying that Nitram's going to come out soon. You tap your fingers on the table and look over at the chandelier, John follows your eyes and stares up at it in awe. At least you managed to distract him for a little while, so long as he's not looking at you, he's not going to try to convince you to undress with his eyes. 

John began to idly hum to himself as he looked up at the golden lights. He starts to sing a small tune, it's only small mumbles, you can't make anything out. You turn your head back around to stare at him. John's fins fail up again for a moment. He looks shocked that you noticed him singing. John rubbed his fins back down his his hands, like he was styzing his hair. You smile at him as he clears his throat. John places his hands down on his lap and holds his head up high. John readjusts one of his golden rings and goes back to staring at you.

You pay him a smile, letting him know he's alright. John sighs and relaxes himself. He shakes his head and then extends his hand out to you. You take it into your hand and you begin stroking his knuckles gently with your thumb. John places his palm up to his face and hums like he's screaming. You can feel on your chest that John's completely enraptured by how gentle you are with him. In actuality, what you feel is this beating emotion on your chest, this feeling like you want nothing more than to tightly hug the person you love. You just guess it's because you've been kind and probably in his eyes a little shy. John must think you're timid, that or that you're to taken in by his beauty that you don't know how to approach him. John doesn't know that both are true. You want to pull John close and kiss him like he kisses you... but you don't want to escalade things. If you start planting kisses on John's cute nose and his adorable smile he's just going to think you're ready for the next step. 

You can feel the tip John's tail lightly wave back and forth under the table, as beautiful as it is... you're a bit afraid of touching it right now. When it grazes against your leg you feel like jumping back a little. His entire bottom is just that of a fishes. And you would hate to admit it but Rose is right... you wouldn't know the first thing about being with him even if it wasn't. John has such a soft and gentle touch, his tanned skin is so soft to the touch too. His smile is entrancing and his eyes are even more beautiful than the skies, than the seas... you don't know if you can bring yourself to do anything more than hold his hand. You already feel yourself start to sweat. Great. Your hands are getting all clammy. Your husband tilts his head. He can feel your emotions. Awesome. 

Thank the fucking lord, Nitram just stepped out with a plate on a tray. He brought you two empty glasses, a piture of water and a plate with a single small steak on it. 

"I'm so sorry,sir." Nitram tells you as he sets everything down on the table. "I forgot to ask... did you want him to sample everything one at a time. I didn't think about how the plates could get cold if they linger out on the table until the staff brought it up."

"Eh, lets maybe so a few things at a time." You answer. It's probably smart if John tries everything while it's hot. He'll probably assume that heated up food is luxurious because he's never had it before. 

John takes the hot and bleeding steak in his hand and begins holding it over his head and takes a bite. The meat is too tough for him to just chew with his teeth- suddenly, John's sharp row of teeth makes a reappearance. John's teeth are sharp like blades. You watch -in slight horror- as the steak gave. It was torn apart with little effort on John's end. John just swallows half of the steak and then turns his head to look at you. "Das ist gut!" John seems too like it, he's smiling with oil dripping from his chin. Blood from the steak is staining John's hands. John finishes the rest of the meat and then proudly turns to Nitram. "Meir bitte!"

"Uh..." Nitram doesn't seem to know what that means. You are about to tell him it's alright and then Nitram turns to you and asks, "is it alright if I get him more or should I tell him that you don't want him to fill up."

"Huh? You speak German?" You feel completely shocked. 

Nitram lightly laughs at your comment, like your reaction was a joke. "I speak quite a few languages actually, that's part of the reason for why I was hired to work under your family... I don't speak all of them perfectly... German I uh... I'm not that fluent in, but uh... it's kinda similar to English... kinda..."

"Can you tell him that he's going to sample a bit of everything on the ship?" You ask.

"I can." Nitram nods and then speaks with John. John stares up at him, happy to ask Nitram to translate words of his own.

"He told me to tell you that you're sweet to want to get to know him this way. I told him you were trying to uh... learn what he likes and what he doesn't... and he thought it was well... cute."

You smile at John. "Tell him I think he's beautiful."

Nitram translated. John laughs at Dave's words, "ich weiß."

"He says he knows." Nitram translates.

The way that John said it, the tone he used. It makes you think that John knows that he is beautiful, like it's a well known fact that's obvious to everyone here.

John spoke up again. Nitram nodded and translated for you to understand,

"He wants me to tell you that he really... uh... loves the... well he called it like uh... thingy?" 

"Huh?" You think that could be anything.

"I think he meant the table or the chairs. He thinks it's funny that humans are always resting in every room they go in."

"Oh." You guess that you do sit down a lot, mermaids must always be swimming and going somewhere, you wonder if they have homes or if the ocean is just their home.

John speaks up again. Now he's talking more to Nitram than to you. He seems to enjoy speaking with someone who can understand him -who is pleasant to talk too- Nitram nods and laughs at almost everything John says. You think you can see Nitram tense up a little, like he's starting to get charmed by John and his ways just like you were. You think you'd be jealous if John wasn't so enamoured with you. 

You still interrupt though and ask, "what are you two talking about?"

"Oh, he won't stop talking about you!" Nitram nods. "He calls you _his darling_ a lot."

"He does?" You ask. 

"Yes, but it's a little more... cutsie than that?" Nitram sounds like he's asking himself a good way to translate John's thoughts. "I think he's referring to you like that because he finds you cute, sir. He uses a term that's like _darling_ and like _treasure_ to refer to you. I have to admit, he's very adorable. I hope in the future you can learn his language, he's very pleasant to speak with."

You smile over at John. John smiles at you with his sharpest row of teeth. 

"What else did he say." You ask Nitram as you stare at John. 

"Um... he said that he thinks it's funny that the two of you have to go through so many formalities before you give him your soul fully. I'm not sure what he was referring too, but apparently he thinks you two are close to being married... and uh... he wanted to -in his own words- brag about it." 

You laugh. John smiles even wider. He looks deadly with his teeth like that, but he looks so happy. You can't help but smile yourself. John suddenly looks shocked. He widened his eyes and closed his mouth. Then he gave you a faint, sheepish smile. Like he didn't mean to smile with his other row of teeth. 

You place one of your hands on the table, faced up so he can hold it. John takes it and right away, the golden orb on your chest feels more calm.

Nitram says a few words in German to the table, then in English,

"So I told him I'll get him more steak another time but I'm about to bring out an array of plates for him to try."

"Thank you." You nod at him. 

John spoke up again, asking something.

"Danke schön." Nitram must have translated for you with the way he smiled over at you, raised both of his brows and then left.

You felt your chest start to glow with happiness... and lust. There's something grateful about the feeling too... you're not sure why. You just choose to look up at the chandelier again until Nitram gets back.

* * *

John's eyes lit up as the table filled up with small plates of food, the likes of which he's never seen. 

"Mein lieber scholli!" John places both of his hands on his chest. 

You suppose John is about to get the full luxury buffet experience. 

"I thought I would start with the things that might be more familiar to him." Nitram pointed out, "Oysters, shrimp, scallops, crab legs, some different types of sushi."

Dirk had taught you that you mostly eat sushi with your hands anyway. Next to everything on the plate you do, excluding the sashimi, but John's from the ocean. He can eat fish however he likes. Tavros even brought a small plate of wasabi and ginger for John to sample. Nitram jumps right into explaining to him something, probably that it's spicy. John tilts his head, like he doesn't understand what the term means. He takes a small tab of the green paste and licks it. John's face turns into a corntored, painful display of regret. You are quick to lift up a plate of sushi, hoping the rice might help because you already know the water won't. John takes the plate and quickly puts each piece into his mouth. John's face quickly turns to joy as he munches on the rice and fish. He nods. He likes the taste. You smile. Thankful he doesn't seem to be in pain anymore. John hums a laugh as he chews. He swallows everything down with a big gulp.

* * *

You watched him destroy the table. John slammed everything into his mouth like there was no tomorrow. He cracked open the crab legs with his bear hands, and you'd be lying if you said his strength didn't turn you on a little. John slurped up every oyster and crammed all of the sushi into his mouth. Nitram kept coming back and forth, placing different types of sushi down on the table and John must have asked him to keep it coming because he wasn't slowing down. You watched on in amazement. You maybe got to eat about, two- three pieces of sushi before John would take all the new plates and gulp them down. Damn, John's doing everything in his power to seduce you. He's licking his finger tips in between each bite and just now he accidentally licked one of his golden rings. He's dangerous, as time goes on you start to see him more like a shark even with those deceiving scales. You better not be left alone with him after this... or you might lose yourself in his charm. John flashes you a smile and eyes to match, he can feel your heart, he knows what's in it. But something is telling you, John isn't putting on a display for you, he's eating and licking his fingers clean for him. You're not even part of this equation right now, John's stomach is a black void and he's focused on filling it, he's going to mess around with _you_ later. 

Nitram brought out a plate with a large fish on it. John clapped his hands together and poked his nail under the fishes eye, he dug it out and ate it like it was candy. John hummed and happily devoured the fish almost like a herrin, eating all of it in one gulp. Nitram watched on... like he was devastated at the sight. You rested your head on your hands and sighed.

Nitram brought different fillets of fish, first uncooked and then smoked. John asked Nitram something he thought was so funny he had to tell you, "John just asked _'what's wrong with it.'_ " They're both talking about the smoked trout. Nitram had to explain you cooked it with fire. John almost jumped up and started speaking a mile a minute. Nitram told you "John always wanted to see fire." You smile as you say, "tell him that I'll show him later."

* * *

John didn't care for the cooked or smoke food nearly as much as the raw stuff, which he claimed was the _real_ way to eat fish. John did like the breaded shrimp though, but he hated lemon. Whenever he saw a slice on the fish. He would peal it off and toss it to the side. There were about five lemon slivers and ten slices littering the floor before Nitram was done sending out fish and he started sending out poultry. John tried small samples of chicken, duck, goose, turkey. You guess the kitchen heard a Strider asked for everything the kitchen was making and thought it meant, _make everything you have._ You tell Nitram that they can all slow down. "You can tell the kitchen they don't have to make everything."

"Oh. Well..." Nitram sighs. "You see apparently your brother ran into one of the waiters and told them to make John everything they could..."

You narrow your eyes and look at the ground. Dirk must have thought about stalling you and John until he could come over and probably seperate you. You don't need Dirk to oversee every part of your relationship, the two of you are married. You don't need to be taken care of like you're children. You're content with staying by John's side and carrying him around anywhere he needs to go on the ship, at least until he decides to return to the sea... maybe you can make voyages out here once and awhile and reconnect with him as he lives his life with his family. You want to make sure that John lives the best life he can, in the best way he can. You're not sure what the future holds... John did say something about refusing to go back to the sea, but you're sure you can convince him to at least go back and visit his family. You'll find a way to get everyone to agree to linger in the seas longer and wait for his return back home if you manage to get John to leave. 

John looks up at you as he holds onto a smoked shad. He gives you a sad look. Your chest feels like it's tightening. The orb resting on your chest is welling with feelings of mixed sadness, John is upset about the idea of having to leave your side. John wants to return back to the ocean but he can't because of his love for you.

You look down at the empty plates. You sigh. Nitram takes the dishes and noticed that the two of you seem disheartened about something. Nitram smiles at you. He knows how much you enjoy apple juice, so he offers to grab you and John a glass.

* * *

Nitram came back with a few simple small cakes on a tray. He rested them all down along with the two glasses of apple juice. You showed John how to sip it and he enjoyed the taste. He drank all of it as quickly as he could before grabbing a cake and- He dropped it into his lap after he got a taste. John reached over for your apple juice glass. You let him take it as he gulped the rest down. He shakes his head and makes a sour face. John shoves all of the cakes towards you. He must find them to be disgusting. You think they are all better than anything you could find in the city's bakeries. John must just hate anything too sugary. You need to keep that in mind. Nitram was trying to hand John a hankie but John wasn't taking anything else from him. Nitram could bring him a million good things, but one bad thing and John loses all trust. Damn. Now you're worried about yourself, you wonder if he's going to hold you in the same esteem. Nitram is trying to clean off John's lap with the small handkerchief. 

John's starts hissing once he feels someone touch his tail. He extends out his claws and his fins. You stand up and come over to Nitram's side. You start hushing John, trying to calm him down. Nitram is stepping back and shaking. He looks like he's on the verge of pissing himself. You slide the towel out of his clenched hands and tend to John's lap yourself. John turns back into a sweet little bubbly guppy instead of a aggressive, deadly piranha. You think John would have started tearing Nitram apart if you didn't intervene. Something about touching John's tail felt forbidden, you could feel your chest scream death and the orb around your neck shake with rage. John lightly laughs and says a few words to Nitram. He ends it with a violent hiss and flails up every fin on his head. Nitram bolts away. 

You don't think you're going to be able to get him to translate for you two anymore. 


	8. halte mich fest

After having a lovely meal with your darling he decided to show you a bit more around the ship. Dave is holding you so sweetly in his arms. He's kindly taking you down what he calls _the hall_ and he's showing you little images of his family. You past one of his brother, the duke, and he seems scary to you. You held Dave closer to you, the man's eyes were a bitter color and even though you knew it wasn't really him, the feeling of his eyes falling on you scared you enough you had to make Dave move on. Then you got to a image of Dirk. You lightly hissed at it, prompting a laugh from your lover. You stick up your nose at the image of him, you don't want to pay respects in any form to Dirk. You refuse to marvel at his presence in any way shape or form. Then Dave takes you down a few steps and shows you the image of himself! You happily bounce up in his arms. You point at the image, you want Dave to look and see how great it is. Dave nods, "I know. It's me." Dave's smiling at how happy you are to see even his likeness. You get a closer look at the image. You can see how beautiful his blood red eyes are, how lovely his white hair and lashes are... on Dave's actual face. This image looks so dull and lifeless.

He's not smiling in the image. Dave is always smiling and he's always laughing. Your love is quite fond of showing off a different array of gentle smiles and toothy grins. His mouth is just a straight boring line in the captured likeness that is mounted on the strange rock formation. It's all wrong. 

The one thing the image got right was how passionate his gaze feels... Dave's gaze feels almost dangerous, it feels deadly and entrancing. Dave can't use magic, but with a look like that... he doesn't need to. 

You turn to Dave. You place a gentle kiss on his lips. He lets you. He adjusts your bottom in his hands as you wrap your arms around his neck. You start feeling up the back of his head, his hair is soft like nothing you've ever felt before. You continue to press your lips up to his... finally you work up the nerve to slip your tongue into his mouth, in hopes of getting the horrible sticky sweet taste from your meal before out of your mouth. Dave pulls away and gasps. You look up at him with sad eyes. Dave's shocked by your display. Still... when you move to kiss him again. He doesn't pull away. 

You slip your tongue into his mouth again. He let you this time. You hum into his mouth. He tastes so foreign to you. Still, you love the feeling. Dave pulls away again, not because of shock, but this time out of fear of getting caught. You both heard footsteps. A simple maid passes down _the hall._ You watch her pass by.

You look back up at Dave.

"Why don't we go get some fresh air?" 

You tilt your head, still trying to understand his nonsensical words.

. . .

Dave took you out to get a look at the clear sky. Dave's rocking you in his arms. You gaze out into the endless ocean as the ship you're on drifts on the rocky waves. The winds, strong and filled with salt. The slight sting in your eyes from the ocean breeze feels like home.

You look out into the ocean. Your lips part open, you let out a inaudible breath of air. You wish you could see your family again, just to tell them you're safe, that you're in love... that you love them and that you're going to miss them.

You miss the ocean deeply. It is your home... _was_ your home. You're new home is Dave's arms. You never want to leave Dave's side but you do miss the feeling of water surrounding you. You miss the sinernity of the ocean.

The surface is much hotter than the cool waves and the lack of water bizarre against your skin. Still, this is your new home now. No place feels safer than Dave's arms. You feel a sadness well up in your chest. One that is not your own... but matches your pain.

You look up at your darling, he gives you a somber, sad smile. He's worried about you.

You cup his cheek with your hand, you kiss his lips again.

. . .

Dave took you to a part of the ship he hadn't shown you yet. You marvel at the bizarre place he took you. The ground was black, like rock but looked smooth and shiny like the golden bands around your arms. Those bands are made from magic, you bet the floors are too. That's the only way to explain such an amazing feet. Just metallic black stone stretching out down _the hall._ You look up at the _walls_ of crystal blue. Dave had just taught you the word for _wall,_ but he didn't teach you that humans could make walls out of water! You marvel at the sight. There's silver bars between each magnificent pool of water. Oh! You must have been in on of these the moment you wandered onto the ship! You recall schreaching and crawling out of something like this and threatening Dirk to show you where your love was. You were so enraged you could hardly recall your surroundings!

In here there is water that is touching the very top of the... the surface? You don't know the word for what is covering you from up above. Everything is so bizarre and strange but more magnificent than scary... plus, how can you be scared with Dave in your arms? 

Dave walks you down the hall and you gaze around the water that is standing tall above you two. You spot a few fishes swimming in some of the water and you giggle. They keep some fishes on the human ship with them! How adorable. You guess even humans need pets.

Dave walks up to one of the sections of water and bounced you in his arms. He smiled contently up at the _wall_ and you turn to gaze at what he was looking at. You gasp at the sight of what you see. 

It's your steed. Your hippocamp isn't happy to be trapped and he is fuming, rushing around in the water and swimming around restlessly.

You press your hands against the water to try to get into the water with him. There is a forcefield keeping you away. You keep pushing but you can't get through. Dave lightly laughs. He carries you over to some place where the wall stops being water and starts being silver. Dave opens a pathway into another _room._ One with a silver pathway up and he carefully steadies you in his arms as he walks up the silver steps. When Dave reaches the top, Dave kneels down and hosts you in his lap. You gently place your fingers into the water. It works! No forcefield! Your hippocamp comes up to the surface. You pet his snout. You mutter to him how good he is for staying by and how happy you are to see he's safe and that he's here with you. 

You turn to Dave and tell your hippocamp that Dave is your lover. You know your steed can only understand so much of your words, he's intelligent enough to understand that you're not in any danger when you're with the humans if you seem so happy. So your steed settles down. He seems tired. You pet his snout more and lull him into a state of rest.

. . .

Dave took you to another one of what he calls _the tanks._ This _tank_ was large and filled with sand and lovely shells. It's different from the one he tried to place you in before. You wish Dave would have shown you this place and your steed earlier, but there is no way that he could have known the hippocamp was yours. You didn't adoren your stead with gold because it's a heavy material... and you didn't want to weight him down. You thought it would be cruel, but maybe if you hippocamp was wearing bands of gold Dave would have associate him with you. No matter now, you are all here and happy. 

Dave set you down into the tank. You recall when he first placed you in a tank in that completely silver room, you thought it might have been his little love nest... but Dave wasn't willing to get into the water with you, so you knew it wasn't. Now you're thinking that this might be it... after he kissed you like that... no it can't be. You would feel Dave's chest well up with fear and anticipation if that were the case. Dave is quite the silly little sea otter and you are quite the herring. Dave wouldn't be able to hide his emotions from you, no matter how hard he'd try to bury them!

You float at the top of the water and sink almost your whole body in. You keep your eyes above water. You gaze up at him and smile, hoping that he can see your smile in your eyes. Dave smiles down at you and starts humming to you. You perk up you bring your head above water, and your ears so you may listen. 

You listen to him hum until he gains up the nerve to sing.

. . . 

Dave is so beautiful. Everything about him is lovely. He's saranading you and singing to you in his language. You can tell by the tone and the feeling in your heart that the song he is singing is a song of love, or rather all of them were songs of love. Dave's been singing to you for a long while now. You are soothed by the waves and by his voice. You wish to sing to him too to do the same. But you shall wait. You want to hear as many songs from his heart as you can for the time being. 

Dave stops singing when he hears something down in _the hall._ You swim closer towards him. You place your hands on the silver stone where Dave is sitting. Part of the wall swings open. There you see Dave's older brother.

You pout and narrow your eyes. 

"How long have you been alone with him?" Dirk asks in a language you don't understand. 

"For about an hour now." You look up at Dave after he spoke.

"Dave. Do you not respect my authority on this ship?" 

Dave narrowed his eyes at Dirk's words.

"Dirk." Your husband turned around, there was no hints of anger in his voice but you could feel it bubble up from your gut as if the emotions were your own as he spoke. "John is my husband." Dave opened his mouth to speak, to continue... but Dirk cut him off.

"You've only taken so quickly to that idea because John -as much as it pains me to say this- is beautiful... you know nothing of him otherwise."

"I know plenty about him." Your darling is staring Dirk down. He's telling him off for you! You can feel anger in Dave's heart. 

"You spend one day with him and you feel content enough to tell me that, and refer to John as your husband?" Dirk almost sounds like he's about to laugh.

"Dirk. Leave us." Your husband is seething. 

"Alright then." Dirk _does_ laugh. "One last thing."

Dirk looked directly at you, in your language. Dirk paid you a threat. You listen to his words and they ring in your head several times after they are spoken.

_You touch my brother, and he says 'no' and you don't listen... I'll knock the rest of that seafoam out of your body and slice off those ugly little fins of yours._

You don't even hiss at him. You just glare. You stick up your nose and turn away. You weren't planning on placing your hands on your lover where you shouldn't. You belong to Dave, you will do as _he_ pleases. Dave's will is your own. 

Dirk understands very little about your culture and your ways -despite the fact he stated that he wished to learn of them- if Dirk was trying to understand you, he would get that you must do whatever Dave wishes, or else you will dishonor your very soul. Once Dave gives you his body he must do the same, the two of you shall act as one and work in tandem to please each other. You will explain all of this later. For now you just wish to enjoy the feeling of cool water surrounding you and Dave's soft voice. You softly hum as you skim the surface of the water. You move in a way that is more like a dance than actually swimming. You sway your hips and then lean back into the water. You do a backflip and happily stretch your body and then float back up to the surface. You flip your hair up in the air and then begin skimming the surface of the water again.

You feel something growing in your chest, like happiness... and something growing in your gut, like lust.

You turn around and pay your husband a cheeky grin. You almost forgot his eyes were on you. You can't believe how easy it is to get Dave started... but then again, Dave got you hot just a few moments ago. Dave had thanked the man bringing you fish and food. You never, **never** hear anyone around you thanking others for their efforts. You don't even do it yourself. But Dave was so gracious and kind, he seems like he always wants to be polite and he also always jumps to defend others. You are so lucky that your soulmate is so beautiful in a way you've never known. You want to emulate that. You want to be just as compassionate and caring... maybe you should stop hissing at everyone and trying to claw their eyes out... but that one man -the one who brought out the food- he touched you in a place that only your love may touch you. Your lap, your tail, all but your hands are forbidden to anyone but you and your love. You needed to defend Dave's honor by defending your body. Dave however didn't want you hurting the man, you smiled at Dave for his compassion, you thought it to be cute!

Dave is so willing to jump into the fray to save others. You could have sliced him, but Dave had no fear in his heart for you ever hurting him or his body. You feel pride for that, for having your lover's complete trust.

Dave continues to sing to you. You listen to every syllable, despite Dave sounding so foreign to you... you love the sound of his voice. You let yourself drift in the pool of water and shut your eyes as Dave lulls you with his song. You yawn. Dave laughs and you feel your heart bubble... almost like your soul is giggling. Dave simmers down his laughter. You continue listening to Dave as he begins to sing again.

. . .

You wake up. You feel your back tense up, it hurts like it's been smashed with a rock. You see Dave resting on the silver stone next to the water's surface. You swim up next to him and hold onto the stone to lift yourself up a bit. 

You look at your lover, he's peacefully resting on such a hard surface. That's no place for prince's husband to rest.

You start rubbing your back.

Your lover is so silly, he doesn't yet understand that his pain is your pain. 


	9. rest and stress

You let a long, deep breath out from your nose. You shuffle a bit. The ground doesn't feel solid for some reason. You push yourself up to get a look and you find two ocean blue eyes looking up at you. You spot that familiar and perfect smile underneath you. You shake your head and sigh. John didn't want you sleeping on the floor, he wanted you to be comfortable. You don't care if you're comfortable or not... just so long as he his.

"You're dry? How are you..." You look over at your shirt. You took it off just to use it as a pillow. John used your shirt to dry himself off. You don't think twice about it. John can do whatever he pleases, you're not going to stop him or scold him.

John must have crawled out of the tank, dried himself off and rolled you onto your stomach and on top of him. He plants a few kisses onto your lips. You're sure your breath smells like shit right now, and John's smells like fishes. You don't mind that one bit, it's better than shit anyway.

John rolls you off of him and onto the silver railing. You laugh and then try to get up. John guides you with his hands to lay down on your bare stomach. You let John do as he wishes... but you're hoping he's not going to do _anything_ here and now. You don't think he's going to... the feeling on your chest feels more like John is determined about something... helping you maybe?

John starts pressing his fists into your back. You let out a guttural groan. It hurts, he's pulverizing you like a piece of meat. John is massaging you, you don't even know how he figured out that your back is killing you but he did and now John's the one fucking killing you. You don't have the heart to tell him to stop. You just keep wincing. You try to keep calm and stoic but when John started working his knuckles into your back you felt like crying. Slowly the pain starts to turn into relief. You start sighing as John keeps working his fingers and fists up and down your back. He's tending to your muscles in a number of different ways. It hurt at first but damn... John really does know how to treat a man.

After a while, John settles down. John sighs, like he himself just got a massage. He rubs his own back like it feels better and then yawns again. John crawls onto your back. John rests his head down onto one of your shoulder blades and yawns. Looks like your husband wants more rest. You smack your lips open and close for a moment before you sigh out, "okay."

. . .

When John woke up, he stretched out his body. You couldn't sleep yourself. Something about being squished against a hard floor and a mermaid didn't lull you to sleep. John slept like a baby though, you listened to him rustle around in his sleep. He started lightly snoring too, like he was having a dream. When he got up and off your back he looked down at you to see if you were awake.

John smiles brightly when he sees that you're up. You smile back up at him. 

John leans down and places kisses all over your face and then he hops over your body like a seal on land. He goes back into the water and happily stretches out his back. You smile at him as he takes a nice dip after your nap. You watch him go under the water and descend into the tank. 

You wonder what time it is right now. It's probably late, you hope the kitchens are still open you're feeling hungry. You didn't eat much when John was sitting at the dining table with you. John ate all he could get a hold of and you didn't eat any of the bakers cakes once John threatened Nitram. You felt like pulling John away right after that. 

John surfaced on the water again. He cooed like a baby bird again. He was whining. You feel a hunger on your chest. 

Well that settles that. Doesn't matter if the kitchens are closed or not. John's getting a meal.

. . .

John looked so pleased when the food came out of the kitchen. He clapped his hands together and started downing steaks and fish fillets like they were simple appetizers. You watched John use his sharpest row of teeth to chew through everything and down the feast before him like it was going to disappear if he didn't down everything in less than a minute. You sighed an airy sigh as you watched him work. John was devouring everything in two bites or less. You took your time finishing the steak that was placed in front of you, silently wondering if mermaids had more than one stomach. 

. . .

When John was content and full you carried John back to the tank you set him down in before. John happily swam around and then yawned. He rested on the top of the water and grabbed onto the silver platform. John waited and watched to see if you would join him or lay down again. You placed a kiss onto his forehead and told him, "I'll be back later." Hoping that his heart would let him know what the words meant.

You started to walk down the steps, you already knew what would happen once you did... you were just hoping that John would have wanted to stay. You listened to John chirp at you. He cried out to you to come back to him. 

You turn around and give him a faint smile. 

. . .

You were hoping that he'd want to spend the night in a real tank and not a tub full of water.

You sigh as you place John back into the tub in your bathroom. You can feel in your heart that John wants you both to be together when you sleep at night. John won't be content unless you're close by. You place another kiss on the tip of his nose and he giggles and flips his tail up in the water and then slams it down into the tub. 

Before you even sit up, you hear the door to your room open. You hear Rose call for you, "Dave."

You settle back up from the bathroom's tile floor and step out to see her. 

She nods at you. Like she's sure that you're all ready for this.

You turn around and look at John. You smile at him and give him a nod.

John looks at you and tilts his head. He blinks once and then mimics your gesture. 

You think you can leave him alone... for just a moment.

. . .

"It was this page right?" Rose pointed down at the book.

"Yeah, that was it." You nod.

"Oh thank the lord I serve." Rose sighs, "I wasn't sure. I thought I would ask before I presented _your highness_ with the wrong materials. I don't wish to insult him." 

Rose wasn't sure exactly what kind of sea whip John was looking for, apparently she had more than she thought in her room when she combed it over earlier. You can't help her sort out through any of this. It's just row after row of shells and seaweeds and then spices and berries, one cabinet you saw her open had a jar filled with blood, from you don't wanna know what. You saw some bones scattered around the entire place... you're sure that skull is just for decoration.

Rose apparently dabbled in enough black magic to warrant an execution, but Dirk saw her scheduled beheading as an opportunity to nab her up as his own personal sorceress. Rose has no choice, she has to serve Dirk or pay the price of her sins... of course she has the chance to refuse to come with Dirk on some of his expeditions, however, she was expected to come on the less parless ones, along with this one you're on now. Poor Rose is more like a servant now than a guest, but you're sure if she really wanted to, she could break free and join the covenant of the black magic witches. She probably thinks that serving Dirk is funny, she has a vizare sense of humor and Dirk gets her anything she asks for. You're sure he only does because she'll fly off and leave him in the dust if he doesn't. 

Rose gathered together a small box of things to bring John. You did nothing other than watch her grab things that looked like what John asked for and for some reason a few large shells.

She gestured for you to hurry with her through the halls and back to John. 

Once you open up your door, you can already hear John calling out to you, he sounds more than happy that you're back. John's already splashing around in the tub before you even open the door. John lifts up his arms to greet you. You wouldn't mind this becoming a routine thing. John's kissing every part of your face in a rapid succession. 

Rose seems annoyed at the gesture, that or she's annoyed because she's afraid her makeup is going to get ruined again. Rose walks up to John and sets the wooden box down on the ground. She opens it and gestures for John to look at it. John jumps right to grabbing a few things. He picked up a few ingredients, whatever he thought was bad he tossed to the side. Rose watched on in amazement as John handed her a few good things and then right away, threw a useless shell to the wall, shattering it. John found a good large shell and nodded. He kept it for himself and then grabbed a few things from Rose's arms. He started pressing the things he picked out against the large shell. John then smacked his hand over the pulp he just made and held it up to his lips, he's cautiously trying to consume it without letting it... well it looks like he's trying to stop it from floating away.

"Must be muscle memory." Rose tells you, "he lived most his life under water, this must just be how mermaids make spells... and they must toss whatever is worthless to them." Rose eyes her old ingredients and shells that were tossed about the floor. You turn your head to look at them as well but John is already shoving the shell into your face. He wants you to have some. 

You don't hesitate to use your fingers to eat the paste that John made. You eat the rest of what's on the shell as John gestures for you to continue and eat it all.

John tilts his head once you are done. He opens his mouth to speak but seems a bit hesitant to. 

John nods confidently, you feel a soft rise of pride rise in your chest, like the build of confidence. 

"My darling?" John just spoke... and you just understood. John tilts his head and softly speaks in a strange accent. One that sounds even detached from German, he gently asks with hope in his eyes, "can you understand me?"

"John... how are you talk-?" You smile an almost let out a dry laugh as you look down at the shell and then back up at him. "You're so amazing... you know that?"

"Why yes." John nods proudly with a self-assured smile on his face. "I'm well aware."

You hold the shell close to your chest, you hope John can't feel just how nervous you are, hearing how confident John is first-and is intimidating. 

. . .

Rose left the two of you alone after that, you could understand John but she couldn't so why bother to stay?

You talked with John as you sat on the bathroom floor until John told you that his bottom was starting to hurt. Apparently, he can feel any pain that you feel. You better make sure to take care of yourself from this point forward. You'd beat yourself up if you fell asleep on the floor again and gave John yet another stiff back. 

You dried John off after he told you he was hurting and you brought him onto your bed. John laid his head down on one side of your bed as you laid down on the other. John was amazed at how soft it was, he told you it must be what clouds feel like. He's even cuter than you could have ever dreamt he'd sound. 

The two of you talked back and forth about everything you could think of. You started with telling him that you needed to wait before you could do _anything._ You explained that you needed time to get to know John and that Dirk might not have explained that to the best of his ability. You explained that neither of your brother's were people persons and that they were twins. John explained that he was a twin as well. It's dangerous to have more than one person like John running -well swimming- around out there. The two of you started talking more and more about your families. Apparently John's family was very strict and expected a lot out of him, he's happy to be here with you just to get away from the weight of his responsibilities. But you can feel that John misses his loved ones. When you brought that up to him he just switched the topic and started asking about yours. You explained the same thing Dirk already told him, and added in that both of your parents are deceased. 

"Ah." John lowers his gaze down to stare at nothing. "I'm sorry for your loss..."

"It's alright. It happened a long time ago." You softly say. "My brothers raised me anyway. I always felt closer to them to be honest." You grab onto John's hand, you press a kiss up to his fist. He still seems like he's hurting over his family. You'd rather he talk about it instead of keep it in, "do you miss your parents?"

John sighs and lightly nods his head, "I miss them both greatly... My mother's vessel had been destroyed. Her soul lives on in my father's heart. I was lucky that I was never without her."

John said something about your souls eventually bonding, you don't know... that was when he first started talking and he was so excited that you understood him he was talking a a mile a minute. You think John is saying that his mom's soul literally lives inside of his father's. You softly say the words onto his hands,

"But... even then, you still missed seeing her... didn't you?"

"I missed her greatly, but when I hugged my father and closed my eyes, I could feel her presence." John lightly hugs himself with one of his arms. You don't hold yourself back. You pull John into a hug and place kisses onto his eyelids and his nose. You love him so deeply. 

You pull away and ask him to tell you more, "what is the rest of your family like?"

"Well..." John takes a different tone, one more playful and mischievous to match his stories, "my sister was never one for rules, or for order. I kept trying to make her fall in line, but she always wanted to mess with the servants and she's convince me to use magic to play tricks on the elders. She knew I couldn't resist."

"You love pranks?" You feel your chest bubble up.

"Humans have a word for nasty tricks?" John tilts his head into the pillow.

"If the nasty trick is just stupid fun." You explain.

"Ha! Stupid fu-" John laughs and sighs. "Oh, Dave. I'm glad we are soulmates... I love every word you speak."

You confess, "I love everything about you."

John rested his head on your chest. "I never want to spend a moment away from you."

You let a soft breath out of your lips. You press a gentle kiss against John's head and then rest yours down onto the pillow bellow you.

"I love you." You say as you close your eyes.

John mumbles, "I love..." John yawns. "I love you too."

. . .

You wake up. John's breathing heavy, he feels so hot. You feel your stomach twist in knots, the sound of him panting like that is fucking hotter as the flames of hell... but you mostly feel fear. Why is he panting like that? You shoot your head up and look down at him. John is feverishly heaving and struggling not to fidget. He's twiddling his fingers around his soul that's still around your neck. He gently lets it go and starts toying around with the pillow under his head. 

You ask, "are you okay?"

"I -ah- I know th-ah-that you don't want to... to do anything just yet, my darling... but... I can't control my lust."

Your eyes widen. 

"It'll pass." John nods. He reaches his hands up and wants you to come into his arms. You instantly regret looking down at his chest. His fucking hot bare chest. John gasps and jumps up. He must have felt something hard and foreign bump up against his tail. His fins on his head flared up and he looked down at your raging hard-on with flickering eyes. He held his palm over his mouth as he tried to steady his breathing. "Wh-what is that?"

You wince, "uh... just ignore that."

"Is it..." John points his finger down at your erection. "Is that is your appendage?"

"Yeah..." You don't want to admit it, but if you lie he'll find out the truth eventually and you don't think John takes kindly to lies.

"You... you are filled with lust too... this... it's making it even harder to focus on keeping my sanity, my darling."

"I'm... I'm sorry." That's right. John feels everything that you feel.

"It's... it's alright... it's not your fault." John lets out an airy sigh. "I-I've been getting these intense spikes of heat and once we truly are united in our bond... it will -hmm- become easier on me."

Oh. John's struggling with... heat cycles. That explains how he just randomly got turned on in the tub and started feeling himself up to try to get you to touch him. John's moaning now. Moaning like you're actually fucking him. He's digging his nails into your collar bones and biting down on his lips. The more he does that, the hotter you get, and the worse it is on him. You need to calm yourself. You focus instead on speaking with him.

You pant as you ask John, "when um... _we're_ ready for that, after we... _you know..._ will this stop happening?"

John shook his head no. "It will continue to happen. I need you by me at all times so you can take care of me, or else we'll both suffer."

"Oh..." You have to admit... part of you is kinda turned on by that. You're going to have the very important job of getting your husband off whenever he start suffering from being fucking horny. Damn. John's fucking right... you are both suffering together. You want to finish John off right now and settle him down but... you two still aren't ready for that step just yet.

John steadies his breathing again to tell you, "after we commit to each other in body and in soul... you will feel everything that I feel. If you do not take care of me, you're going to feel my pain as well. Just like I can feel yours."

You guess you should offer a solution, one that you are a bit ashamed to bring up but, here goes nothing.

"Can you uh... go into the bathroom and, you know... _take care_ of yourself?"

John tilts his head. "Bat...batroom?"

"Bathroom." You correct him. "It's the place I was keeping you before, the place with the tub."

"Oh... Well... I can not touch myself in a way that will stop the heat." John shakes his head no again.

"R...really?" How does he know that... did he try... You don't want to picture him pleasuring himself. It will only make you worse. Shit. You just pictured him fingering himself.

"I do not wish to speak... _ah..._ speak such lewd words in front of _-ah-_ of you my love... but... I need your... your... um... your _stuff_ to end this pain." John lets a silent moan escape his lips.

"Oh." You think John's trying to say he needs you to finish inside of him to end his heat, but something else just struck you as priority. "Are you in pain?"

"Not... not being able to service your body is making my head swarm... with... ah... Dave, I want to touch you... can I pleasure you, you do not need to pleasure me."

"Is... the fact I'm... uh..." You look down at your erection. " _In heat_ too, making it painful?"

"Yes." John nods.

"I can uh... take care of it myself if that will make it easier for you to get over your heat." You offer. "I just don't want anything to happen between us yet."

"Maybe not then..." John shakes his head. "I will feel anything that you do to your body. If you pleasure yourself, I will also feel it."

"Oh. Oh wow..." You feel your cock twitch a little.

John swallows down some spit and then he explains, "in my heart, we are already one... one in body and soul. Overtime our souls will blend into one form. Your soul and mine will live in that charm around your neck, someday." John, out of the blue let out a long moan. " _ahhhhh!_ I... I already can feel everything you do and... _ah..._ Your lust for me is so... _mh..."_

"I... I can... _please_ myself if you want." You swallow down your fear and offer. "We can just uh... figure something out."

"My love, I can feel in my heart that you're not ready for that. For pleasing me in that way. Just... lets keep talking of pleasant things. Tell me about the surface world."

"Uh..." You rack your brain for anything to talk about. Nitram did say that John thought it was funny that humans are always sitting. "There is a place to sit or rest almost everywhere you step."

"Oh." John seems interested in what you're saying.

You quickly think of something else to say, "uh... people get tired of walking so we places to sit and rest everywhere we can." 

"Oh, yes." John takes a moment to think to himself. "I suppose in the ocean we're always just floating around, and I loved to lay down in the sand while I talked to my sister about... well humans. Ha... she would be so jealous of me marrying a human. She's probably with her lover right now, bombarding them with stories that she heard from the elders."

"Is... is that how you know about humanity? From hearing stories?" You ask.

"Yes. How else would you learn stories if not talking about them?" John giggles and than pants. "You are such a silly little oyster sometimes, my sweet."

You smile at John's comment as you explain, "human's mostly write down-"

"Oh yes! I heard of this!" John claps his hands together, like he's so fond of doing. "You can etch writings down on stone and in things called _books."_

"Yes. Rose brought you one the other day."

"You mean the things capturing the seaweeds and whips?" John sweetly asks.

"Yes. Those were printed onto the pages and-" John cuts you off.

"You're speaking again with words I don't understand, darling."

"Humans... created the likenesses of the seaweed and then placed them onto the slivers of paper." You explain.

"So the... individual thin things are called paper?" John asks.

"Yes."

"And humans literally crafted the likenesses with... magic?" John sounds unsure.

"Not with magic. No." You don't think anyone really uses magic to make books. Maybe some people do, but not many from what you heard. 

"How do you make the silly darling books then?" John sounds amused as he pants. 

"Oh... Well... I'm not sure." You shake your head. 

Then John asks you a bizarre question,

"Are there so many humans doing so many different jobs that there's no way for you to know how to do all of the jobs?"

"Yes?"

"Oh my... I knew how to do every job back at home... but you do not know how to craft books. Do you not know how to craft potions or weave baskets?"

"No." You admit.

"And you don't know how to use magic?" 

"No." You confess.

"What can you do?!" 

"ouch." You pretend to be hurt.

"Oh... I didn't mean..."

"No, John... It's okay." You smile and almost laugh. "I just don't know how to do much other than play music and sing. I know somethings about the arts and swordsmanship cause I was trained but-"

"Sw-sword..." John's stunned by something you said. "Wait. what was that word you just said, my dear?" 

"Oh. Swordsmanship? I can wield _a certain_ weapon well." You tell him.

John gasps. "Do you need to fight on the surface world!?"

"No. Not really... most things are handled with words, but..." Right away you think of your two brothers. "Sometimes people deul to defend their honor."

"Oh. So you fight to the death too?" John sweetly tilts his head again.

"No. Duels end before... did you just say too? Do mermaids do that?"

"Yes." John quickly says as he nods his head.

"Were... you actually going to kill Nitram?" You are afraid of the answer.

"Who?" John already forgot about him.

"The man who brought us out plates of food in the dining hall."

You're starting to get why your brother keeps thing of John as something dangerous...

John says just as sweetly as ever. "Yes!"

"John. You can't... do that to people." You're going to have to keep a close eye on John if doesn't understand that. 

"Why not? He was young. His soul was not yet claimed by love. He would have-" John's words start fading into a language you don't understand. You faintly hear some words, but the meaning is mutteled into nothing. 

"John... I don't understand..."

John tilts his head. He doesn't understand you either. At least you managed to distract him long enough that he's not panting hard any longer. You think you might have pulled him out... John is squirming again. He's fidgeting. You blow a gust of steam out of your gut. You think this is going to be harder than you thought. 


	10. Fischfutter

You wake up clinging to something. You yawn and stretch out your back, still half asleep and dazed as you lightly smack your gums together. You nuzzle up to something warm next to you. You take a deep breath in through your nose and breath in the scent of something lovely and gentle. You feel so refreshed, you tighten your grasp around whatever it is your clinging too. You feel the need to just hold on to it, like it's an instinct... otherwise it will just float away and leave your side, and you can't have it leaving your side. You open your eyes, you need to see what it is your heart's telling you you need. It's Dave! You feel your tail jump up once and smack back down onto the bed. You can't help your excitement, it's just in your nature you suppose. 

You can't believe you were so tired that you forgot your darling love was in your arms! You feel like smacking yourself. Instead, you nuzzle the top of your head against Dave's chest. He might be shy about you touching his chest, but your heart feels like he loves it now. He warmed up to you completely. You drag your head up and look into your lover's eyes.

Dave's looking down at you, like he's been awake for a while. He's been just resting, laying down and staying put just so he doesn't disturb you or your rest.

"Hey." Dave greets you in a language that you do not understand. 

You lightly breath in air, inaudible gasping. Your tail starts thumping against the giant soft thing you've been resting on, _the bed_ you think it's called. You're lifting up what Dave called _the sheets_. You feel so snuggly and safe in Dave's arms. You pull him close to you and kiss his chest and his face. His breath is smelly but that's okay, he's darling all the same. 

He's been waiting for you to awaken so he could slide out of the bed. You sit up. Expecting that he pick you up so you could join him in starting the day.

Dave got up and left your side, he gave you a few parting words, although you don't understand the words you know his gestures to mean _"wait here"_. He does that gesture from time to time.

You hear the _bathroom door_ shut.

He left you alone for a brief moment. Your heart swells up with sadness. You're sure human's must live in a different way than mermaids do... but lovers are supposed to always do everything together. In your _old world_ a person's lover represented literally half of their soul. You're sure Dave has his reasons for leaving your side... that doesn't stop you from calling out for him. You sing a sad chirp, pleading for his return.

You softly whine, chitter for your heart to come back to you again. You hear water moving around and some other strange noises from behind the _wall_. When Dave finally comes back, he places a kiss against your lips. His mouth smells strong but pleasant, like some foreign herb. You want to taste more. So you pull him into a kiss.

. . .

Dave is walking you around the ship again, you're lucky your love's arms are so strong. He's able to hold you up and show you around the human ship.

He let you visit your steed again. You swam around with him for a moment and pet his snout. 

You gestured for Dave to join you in the water. He seems hesitant to join you, but in the end he couldn't resist.

You showed Dave how to stroke your steeds hair and how to ride on it's back and you showed your steed he needed to float along the surface so Dave could breathe. Dave road your steed's back in such a strange way... but you guess human's _can_ mount a hippocamp with them in between their legs. You tried to show Dave that he needed to place his legs to the side. Dave laughed when you showed him how to properly sit, he started giving you sarcastic proper gestures. Dave was bowing to you and kissing your hand. You guess to human's that really is the _proper_ way to sit. It must be very high society and Dave's acting like your a manner's instructor. Ugh. You always hated all those proper etiquette classes and you're not about to subjugate your husband to such things. You hop right on your hippocamp, right behind Dave and rile up the beast. Right when you wrap your arms around Dave, your steed dives into the water and starts galloping around. Happily giving out a cheerful whinny as you ride him like you do in private. You resurface only for a moment and you hear Dave gasp. You laugh as you dive underwater again. Dave blows out bubbles from his mouth and laughs with you. He doesn't seem in anyway fearful of the beast or the wild ride it's taking the two of you on. Dave seems like he's honestly having fun! You fully wrap your arms around Dave and hug him tight. You shut your eyes and peacefully smile.

. . . 

Dave's trying to catch his breath still, you guess you overdid it. You're both floating on the top of the cool salt water. You give him apologetic eyes and a small chirp. You feel Dave's heart overflow with happiness at the sound. He's not very good at hiding his emotions from you, he keeps planting kisses on your face and pulling you into hugs. You giggles as you smack your tail around the water. 

Dave eventually comes too, he pulls himself away from kissing you and he stops panting. Dave drags you out of the water and dries you off with a long piece of cloth. You thank him with a kiss.

. . .

Your darling love decided it was time to go and dine again. He brought you to the same place as before and _sat_ you down in the seat.

The staff was quick to bring food out to you and your husband. You happily cracked open your crab and got to work devouring the tasty meat inside. It was cooked again you think, but this is much better than the blackened fish they would hand out to you. There's a creamy yellowish liquid and it tastes wonderful! Like nothing else you've ever had. You open up Dave's too once you see him reaching for a tool. You break everything open with your hands and pull out the meat for him. Dave seems really impressed with how quickly you can pick apart crab. Of course you have to be quick! Otherwise it will fight back! 

The two of you finished eating everything on your plates and discarding the shells. Someone walks out to take the plates and someone else comes out carrying a huge tray of a different array of seafood! You happily pick through the tray and oh! There is a live shrimp trying to crawl out of the pile. You smack it with your fist and instantly down it. You dig through as much of the tray as you can. Trying to find something nice... oh! There's a bright red fish. You know this one is delicious. You hold it up and show Dave. "Yeah, man... it's a red snapper." Dave nods.

You hold it over the plate and offer it to your love. Dave shakes his head. You know in his heart that he wants you desperately to eat it instead of him. What a sweetheart. You unhinge your jaw and eat it in two large bites. 

. . .

You stare down at the empty tray. You laid your back against the wall you stretched out your tail as you yawned. You like being able to relax and lay about, just like Dave does... you think you're going to try it. You see how Dave has one of his arms over his chair, he looks so cool! Like he doesn't care about anything. He flips his hair up when he notices that you're looking at him and your heart swells, you swoon. You titter out a little laugh and then mimic him.

You put your arm behind you and rest it on the chair. You cover your mouth as you snicker. Dave is laughing too. You can feel in your heart that he thinks you're funny. 

You flip up your hair and then give Dave a big smile, like you're asking if you're doing it right. Dave's heart is overwhelmed. Poor thing is turning another deeper, shade. He looks almost as bright red as his gorgeous eyes. 

You flip your hair again and then giggle. Just like last time you felt Dave's heartbeat jump and spin. His heart is completely beating to your tune. He's such a darling... you want so badly to be with him in body and soul... but he isn't ready for it. You understand. Your lover has a sensitive heart, you need to ease him into being with you. You completely get it, you're so beautiful and winsome. Your enchanting body and adorable face is just too much for someone as timid and shy as your darling little treasure. 

You continue giggling and toying around with your husband. Dave starts laughing with you like he's having fun playing your little game. Then he stops, he sees something coming up behind you. You turn your head around and hiss on instinct. 

_It's him._ You give him a little hmph as you turn around and face Dave again. You readjust in your seat to sit properly, you need Dirk to remember your stance is above him. As you adjust your tail you notice a few things on the floor that got away. You pick up the two sea cucumbers and start horking them down. 

By the time Dirk gets up to the two of you, you make sure to look dignified and proper again. You refuse to aknowldge Dirk as he says "hallo" to you. You just hold up one of your cucumbers in your hand and wave him off. 

When Dave and Dirk begin talking to each other, only then do you look up and over at Dirk. The two of them seem to be exchanging simple pleasantries. You watch Dirk as he speaks, you don't like the way that he's frowning at the two of you. 

Dirk's eyes fall on Dave as he says, "I've been getting complaints from the staff."

"Huh? About what?" Dave asks his brother something you do not understand. You can feel in your heart and in your mind though that something is up. You feel as if Dirk is going to complain to your husband that you've been scaring people on board. You don't hiss that much anymore... so long as Dirk isn't around that is.

Dirk answers your husband's question, "I came here to tell you the staffs been placing complaints about how John is eating about ten times his share."

"He..." Your husband looks at you.

You finish slurping up the rest of the sea cucumber and then smile at Dave.

"He's got a healthy appetite." Dave says as you down the cucumber that's in your hand. 

"We're going to start lightening his meals, other people on the ship need to eat too."

Dave wanted to say something, "I-" But Dirk cut him off.

"-That includes you." Dirk says words that prompt Dave to groan. Dirk doesn't even want to hear him out, Dirk just bluntly says, "you've been eating less."

"I eat plenty." Dave shrugs.

"Dave."

"It's hard to get a bite in when John's at the table..."

"Dave."

"but..." Dave's cut off, by the sound of his own stomach gurgling. 

Your husband sighs, admitting defeat.

"We can figure something out."

"I think we already did." Dirk looks over at you. "It seems that Rose's suggestion worked out. Maybe we can continue doing this for a while, but the other men on board complained at how long it took to collect enough food to fill a tray."

"Wait... so you didn't just dig this out of a tank? You actually just pulled shit out of the sea and-"

Dirk turns to you. He asks you if you enjoyed your meal.

You nod. Perhaps he actually wants to be polite for once, "es war wundervoll."

"Gut." Dirk says to you and then turns back to your lover. "In the future, you should fish for him. If you don't want to lighten his meals, then you should be the one doing the work." 

"I have no problem with that." Dave smiles over at you. "Actually... I like that idea."

You can see on Dave's face a small fraction of how happy Dave is in the moment. You match the happiness in his heart with a smile. "Oh!" You sit up. Dave's stomach growled just a moment ago. You start coughing. You begin to hack up the last thing you swallowed, but Dirk is so rude. He stops you. He tells you that Dave needs to eat _human food._ Sea Cucumbers are a delicacy where you come from! You crossed your arms and huffed when Dirk told you that _expelling food from your body is only going to sicken Dave._ How dare he assume your husband would be repulsed by you commiting to a completely normal act of love, how would that sicken Dave? That's like saying that breathing around Dave would make him wince or that kissing Dave would make him flee. Ugh! You want to give Dave's brother a chance, but he just keeps insulting you every chance he gets! 

You stick up your nose when Dave eats what Dirk recommended. Dave keeps eating the gross looking dried up seaweed and the little red balls like that's a real meal. Worse yet! They brought him a fried up fish, looks like it sat in the sun for ages. It's all crusty! It's so gross looking! They are torturing your poor husband... but the look on his sweet little face tells you that he loves it. Dave keeps eating the gross fish, bit-by-tiny-bit... You giggle at seeing how tiny all of his little bites are. Like a tiny baby guppy. As you giggle at him, Dave smiles up at you.

That's fine if you think his meal is gross, if Dave loves it, then it's alright by you... Just so long as you don't have to eat any of the crusty fish yourself, you'll be okay.

. . .

Dave took you to the surface of the ship again. It's the third day in a row where he's been treating you like the prince you are. Catching you cast after cast of yummy fish.

Dave's standing over the railing, reeling in a large net that he keeps casting out to catch you dinner. Almost every time it brings up a fish and you happily devore each one he hands to you. Dave is so sweet to work so hard for you. It looks like hard work reeling in each cast, but at seeing how happy you are Dave keeps on moving, bring in more and more fish for you to eat, like the provider he is for your little family.

The fishes bones crush under your teeth and the taste of saltwater reminds you of home.

It reminds you of something else. Something that belongs back home...

Dave hands you another fish. You put it down, and rest it on your lap. 

You look out into the sea. 

Oh, how you hope the witch brings you matterials again. You want to be able to tell Dave what's in your heart at the moment. 

Perhaps, you don't need words to exchange between you for this. Perhaps he can understand your heart.

You turn to Dave you plead with him and hope his heart can hear you.

You want your hippocamp to return home to the ocean where he belongs.


	11. those eyes

You stared right into John's eyes. He seemed like he was pleading with you for something... then he looked back at the sea. You felt a weight anchor down your heart, you've been burdened with that feeling for hours now. You can't sleep, not even with John clinging to you. That look has been haunting you, it's been draining you of any joy you had prior. You felt so blessed to have John's attention, to bear his heart, his literal soul, on your chest... but now... that all feels so tainted. 

You look at John, he looks so peaceful in his dreams... but he shuffles like he's uncomfortable. John should be underwater, he shouldn't be on a bed or forced to stay in a bathtub. He's only here in your bed... because of you. Someone like John shouldn't be tethered to someone like you, John deserves better, he deserves so much more than a man as sad as you. You know that look he gave you was him questioning his place here, that he wanted to return to the ocean but so long as you were his husband he had to remain on land. You just feel like you're the thing causing John so much pain, so much ache... he can't return to the sea so long as you're with him... 

. . .

John's opened up his eyes. You were hoping you could wake him when you were already in the lifeboat, the moment you got outside, the cool saltwater breeze must have woken him. John looks up at you, he seems curious about what you're doing... then he must have felt what was in your heart because he started pounding on your chest. His eyes are welling up with tears. He's chirping again as tears stream down his chestnut cheeks. 

You plant a kiss on his head and tell him, "you... you need to leave, you're supposed to be in the sea, John... not with me..."

John wraps his arms around your neck and forces a kiss against your lips, like he's trying to convince you how badly you need him by your side. You do need him, you want him to stay besides you... but you need him to be happy even more.

You muster up all of your strength to say, "I need you to leave."

John seems so miserable out of the sea, that look he gave you broke your heart in two. You need to do what's best for him, even if it's going to haunt you for the rest of your life... wondering what might have been.  
John looked like he was begging for you to just reject him and send him back to the place he belongs, he can tell himself for the rest of his life that you were horrible, you were a monster to reject something so perfect and as breathtakingly beautiful as he is... you can leave him and let him tell himself that, as a gift to him... just like he was pleading you for. 

John needs to return back to the ocean where he belongs, after you free him, you'll wake up Rose and plead with her to help you find some way to release John's hippocamp with magic. 

You approach the side of the boat and try walking over to the lifeboat -once you are there, you will give John back his soul and release him from you- but John grabbed onto one of the rails, he's holding on for dear life. You manage to pry one of his hands off of the rail but once you did he started hysterically sobbing. Shouting like he was pleading for his life. You heard footsteps, someone must have caught you. You turn your head and to see who it was... it was Rose. Shit. Now you know you're on your fucking own, looks like she's running to alert Dirk.

You try to steady yourself as you quickly yank John away from the railing. John shoves you with both his palms as you walk over to the boat. He's pleading with you in two distinct languages you don't understand. He suddenly tries a third, "s'il vous plaît, s'il vous plaît, arrêtez." John keeps begging you, "Dave, bitte! Hör mal zu!" He wants you to quit, he wants you to stop trying to put him back in the sea, you understand it hurts. This is by far the hardest thing you've ever done... but it needs to-

**"Dave."**

You hear your brother growl behind you. John stops his sobs and stares right at him. John starts frantically pleading with Dirk begging him to convince you of something. It’s too bad that your decisions already been made. You take the chance to dash for the boat but Rose blocked your path. She gives you a look, but there's something in her eyes. It's either that she's afraid of something or that she pities you. Either way, you don’t care for that look in her violet eyes.

"Dave. You don't know what you're doing." Dirk grabs your wrist.

"He belongs in the sea-"

"That moments passed." Dirk digs his nails into your skin. He's furious with you.

John suddenly wraps himself around Dirk and sobs into his chest. He's clawing to crawl up Dirk’s body as John slips down his chest before Dirk wraps his arms around him. Dirk's actually comforting John... Rose places her hand onto your shoulder, you shove her off as you turn towards her. Lalonde frowns at you. How dare she fucking look at you like that, like you don't know John better than they do... like you don't know them either. Rose fucking torments people for fun and Dirk would probably sell out someone's life if it meant he could help build a name for himself and make a pretty penny from the novel he’s going to write. 

You stare at both of them, hovering around you as John sobs, you know what the fuck this is. The two of them just want to bring back a mermaid and a hippocamp like John's a matching set to show the world and your relationship with him is just to pacify him, to entertain him while they treat him like a freak in a show. It’s like they got fucking lucky that John decided that you were his soulmate and that he choose to live on board the ship, they’re playing you and John here and you were blind to it. You’re such a fucking moron.

Rose steps past you, shoving you to the side as she comes up from behind. "I will meet all of you in Dave's room. I need to take care of something."

"As do I." Dirk stares at you for a brief moment before he turns back towards the living quarters, still with John sobbing in his arms. 

. . .

Dirk set John back down in your bathtub. He let John hold onto him as the water filled the tub. You watched from outside the door frame, John seemed like he was almost traumatized. Dirk said a few words to him, you could feel John's soul begin to lift a bit. Fear and pain turning to sympathy and something else... something you just can't quite register.

John pulls away from Dirk. John nods as he looks up at your brother.

Dirk sits up and walks towards the threshold. Dirk shut the door and got right to hold himself high above you, only you weren't putting up a front that you were calm and uncaring... now you're showing just how pissed you really are. You're about five seconds away from voicing your thoughts and slugging him after when he tells you,

"you almost killed him."

. . .

It took you a moment to calm down, hearing that and feeling John's stress was doing a number on you and your mind. You needed to step outside for a moment and after one minute Dirk got tired of waiting. Dirk stepped out and told you to follow him.

You walked behind him as he stomped over to Lalonde's suite. His hands are behind his back, his head lifted up high, he tells you,

”I just told John that I’m going to have men patrol around the surface of the ship for if you get any stupid ideas again.”

You scoff at him but he continues,

“Did Rose not tell you that John’s soul already changed in color to match yours? Did I not tell you it was too late... and you didn’t listen to us why? Because you thought us to be cruel?”

You say nothing. 

"No human has ever been gifted with a mermaid's soul before you.” Dirk continues. “All that we know about mermaids and their souls is from what you would describe as _cruel_ studies. Decades ago a researcher plucked a mermaid child from the sea and killed it, then before he began to dissect it. He noticed that the shell it kept in its hand somehow began crawling down to the floor, making its way towards a fish tank. When he dropped it in the tank to see what would happen, the shell latched onto a fish. The mermaid began to slowly reform over the course of days. The doctor continued to kill it and watched it reform for years. Until the mermaid crushed the shell. Effectively killing itself, ending the cycle."

You feel like vomiting. Dirk tells you the story like he's talking about a lab rat. Dosent matter if it would be a mermaid or a lab rat though, that’s cruel to do to anyone, or anything. 

"Then. The same man -in his later years- instructed a team to find another mermaid. To take it's soul from it and see if it can survive when it's vessel is apart from it’s-"

"Can it?!" You instantly ask, almost in a panic. You need to know if that's what would have done John in.

"Yes." Dirk nods. "From even across the world, the mermaid would live on."

"How... how do you know that?" You feel hesitant to ask him that.

"The team hosted the mermaid in a lab and then sent the shell hosting it's soul around the world by train as far as it could possibly go." Dirk tells you confidently. "Then they decided that test was concluded when the shell came back to them and they had what they needed, and then began another test."

You don't ask him what that is. Dirk tells you anyway, "they wanted to observe how it would behave reintroduced into the waters it was found during mating season... the mermaid was dropped in the same waters it was found. The mermaid tired to come back on board, apparently clawing at the metal of the ship with it's nails with such vigor... it left marks on the ship. The team found it strange she was trying to come back on board, it wasn't treated particularly well by anyone on the ship. Then, like sharks after a bleeding seal, several mermaids came up at shore and began tearing the young woman apart with their teeth. They crushed its soul and ended its life right there on the surface.”

You don't move. You don't even think. You don't want to think.

"John's soul is so entwined to yours... do you think he would be reborn or...?"

You shake your head... You try to pull all of your inner strength together to answer, "he... he would have just fused to my soul."

"Then you'd never part, I don't know what you were trying to do but you found the perfect way to fuck yourself over in your ignorance." Dirk's starting to actually get angry with you.

You look away from him. Dirk's slowing down his pace. He's acting like he's so high above you as he says,

"You always act without thinking, thinking that whatever stupid plan you have is the best course of action because it's out of empathy. Recall when you tried to save the life of a Naga when it's people attacked it?"

"I remember-"

"Listen To Me When I Tell You Something." Dirk emphasize each word with a stoic anger. "I told you then not to intervene then and I was right. I told you that it was too late for John to return to the ocean a few days ago. I trusted that you were happy with him and the moment John so much as looked at the ocean I bet you got the thought in your head to just toss him overboard without even talking to him about it."

"I-"

"I told you to let those snake creatures carry out their own traditions- and what... you ended up defending a man who ate his own child to hide the fact he ra-"

"I fuckin' remember!" You yell back and point a finger up at him.

"Think before you fucking act." Dirk grabs your wrist. "You don't ever ask questions. You end up making this stupid mistakes that could cost you your life, or worse... your dignity. What would you have done if you saw John trying to climb back up the ship? What would you have done if you saw him get attacked by his own people?"

"I would have fought them-"

"And died."

You turn your head away from him. You're in front of Rose's door now anyway. You both take a moment to breath before either of you two even think about speaking again.

Dirk lets out a small breathe, something akin to a sigh. Dirk looks at the door, as you watch the back of his head. 

"John seems well to do, the other two mermaids had shells hosting their souls, John's soul is casted in solid gold. Rose told me it looks like it was crafted together with powerful magic. I don't know what that means, but speaking with John, he seems to hold himself highly... I think he may be more than just wealthy, I think his kind might not react so harshly to the scent of human _filth_ on him. But we can't know that for sure."

Rose opens the door to her suite. She looks at the two of you, Rose doesn't say anything. She just holds up a shell for you to take. 

. . .

You held up the shell for John to hold. He was hesitant and still shaken, he takes a deep breath through his nose and lets it out to calm himself. John takes the shell into both of his hands and delicately eats all of the crushed paste you gifted him.

"Can you understand me?" You ask him. 

John nods and then looks down at your hands. You let out a small laugh, "it worked."

"Why do you celebrate? Your words can only serve to wound my heart further... I can understand you heart, my love. I can feel it... I don't need any apologies.” 

"John." You take the shell from his hands, you place it on the floor beside you and then hold both of his palms as gently as you could. "I didn't know... I thought I could just put you in the sea and you'd just go back to where you were supposed to be without issue-"

"I can't leave you." John widens his eyes as he leans in closer to you, "you are my other-half. I need to be with you or else we will both ache- my body will continue to suffer from my heat and-"

"Can't you find a new mate?"

John shakes his head no as he gives you eyes like you're insane. "Mermaids only get one other half! I don't know what you humans do- bu-but to marry anyone other than a soulmate is almost never done and to leave one's soulmate willingly! That is unheard of!"

"I didn't mean... to insult you if I did." Maybe you are really just wounding his heart further.

"Oh, darling... I know. I can always feel in your soul how badly you want me, how you were prying me off of you because you thought my happiness depends on me being in the sea.” John smiles softly at you.

He shuts his eyes closed as he talks with an voice as gentle as the waves and an accent as lovely as the stars, 

”Dave, I do miss the ocean, I do miss my loved-ones... I love the ocean, it was my home. It was... but my new home is here with you... and, my steed... he needs to return to the ocean. I had hoped in my heart you could feel my soul like I can feel yours... sense my thoughts and hear my soul call out to you... but we are not one in body and soul yet... you didn't hear my plea. I was begging you to find a way to return my hippocamp to the sea."

"I... I... I'm sorry I act first before I- I..." You need to stop talking. Tears are going to well up if you do. John opens his eyes again to give you a sweet look.

"Oh, my love..." John cups your cheek in one of his hands. “I undertand what you were doing... you felt it was better you suffered without me and I move on and live with another man... as I suspect you humans do... am I correct in assuming this?"

You nod.

"You are such a funny little goby, I will explain this to you again... this time in simpler terms seeing that you are... well darling, quiet benighted from what I've seen."

You chuckle at John's words. You don't know that that means, but you're sure that John's trying to speak to you in simple terms because he thinks your stupid. 

"My soul is forever tied to yours." John explains, "if I were to die I would be reborn within your soul, living within you as if we are one. Recall what I said about my mother and my father. They live as one, my father said he can even hear my mother's voice in his head... telling him what to do and how _foolish_ he can be at times." John wiggled his head back and forth as he smiled at you. "Just like you can be, my little guppy." John pressed a finger up to your nose. 

John’s light little laughs turn into a somber frown. John dwells on his thoughts before he thinks, 

"If... I would have stayed in the ocean... I would have been hunted down and killed."

“That... that’s so horrible.” You don’t even know what to say.

John delicately places his hand onto his chest as he says, 

"It's a law dating back from the time our current empress had sezed power. She had decided that no humans shall ever learn of our ways seeing how they are a threat to our kingdom... if the other mermaids would have sensed me in the ocean or if any of our sharks would have smelt me... they would have known I was with you, my love... they would have torn me to shreads... but..." John sighs out of his nose, "I know that is law but I don't know if I am exempt..."

John stopped talking, like he wanted you to just man up and ask him, "why would you be exempt?" 

"I... Dave..." John looks down at the tile floor, "promise me you won't tell the others, in any capacity, any of what I am going to tell you.”

You nod, "whatever we tell each other is between us... from this point forward, unless you tell me otherwize." 

John nods. 

You lift up your pinky. John tilts his head to the side and then questions himself as he mimicks the gesture, you wrap your pinky around his and tell him, "it's a promise I have to keep now."

John looks at your fingers, he looks content with that. Like he just figured out this is how humans make pacts. 

"What is it that you wanted to tell me?" You ask him.

"Oh... right..." John nods. "I um... well..."

John suddenly gets timid and begins fidgeting with his hands. He looks down at his hands and then back up at you,

"I am the crowned prince of the middle sea." 

An inautable syllable escapes your mouth. You flounder around for a moment before you nod your head.  
You ask, "and... you... you wanted to be with _me?"_

"Yes." John nods. He gives you a smile.

You're not exactly a high society kind of guy, you grew up in it, sure... but you don't know shit about poltics and you're sitting right now with your legs splayed out like a low-class whore.

You shake your head with your mouth wide open. You shut your legs closed and sit up. John looks up at the ceiling, his head tilting as his body goes ridgid. He lets out a groan of a sigh.

"I'm not a prince anymore... I decided I want to live with you amongst the humans, even if the accomidations Dirk will provide me continue to be this dreadful, I will survive. Just so long as I have you by my side, I will continue to thrive, even without... my usual daily massage... and without the scalp massages either... and I miss the people visiting me and gifting me baskets full of caviar and fish eyes... But I can make do, I don't need such luxires."

"When we get to my home... I can bring you some fish eggs and eyes... no problem. I can even massage you if... if you want." You offer.

"Oh darling, no... you're much to gentle." John giggles. "I do need you to servce my body in another way though..."

You instantly turn red.

"Oh I love how easily you turn from sand to red!" John's calling you out, he grabs the side of the tub and tells you with gusto. "It's so cute! Are all human's like that?"

"I... I don't think most turn red at the drop of a hat, no." Just you probably.

"Oh and I love how you say silly words I don't understand! Hat. Oh darling, you are such a charmer... almost takes my mind off of the horrors I endured today... but I can forgive the fact it was by your hand. Your brother is to much of a simpleton to think ahead about my safety- oh now _we_ would have... been so..." John slowly stopped himself from talking. He lightly pouted at himself as he looked off to the side. “ _I_ would have been in real trouble if the black magic witch didn’t come along.” 

You dwell on that for a moment, "di-did you just like... use the royal _we_?”

"Yes... oh and I’ve been doing so well of late... trying to hold myself back from speaking like that... I am supposed to represent my kingdom and our ways, so _I_ represent all of _us_.”

“Where I come from, everything is very ordely." John makes a little gesture with his whole body, "very proper." John makes another little gesture the opposite way. You laugh as he pokes fun of his upbrining. "Everyone has their own special little role and their own speical little place. And if you're one of the higher ups, playing with other kids is seen as too juvile and beneath you and if you talk too much it's seen as diruptive and if you don't ask any questions at all you aren't paying enough attention, and you have to be this perfect little specimin all the time... and it's such a bore... I never liked breaking the rules though... well at least when I know i'd get caught... but swimming out and the up to the surface just to feel the sunlight or to see the stars... I don't care if my great-grandmother banned seeing the surface... I loved seeing the little balls of fire! I love the wind and the stange feeling of having no water on my skin at all... I love the surface, I always have... I'm so happy I am with you, I never want to leave you, my darling. I always wanted to leave the ocean behind. I don't want to have to marry another mermaid and be brought up for hunderds of years learning to become king under my father's fins! I'd rather live out my youth with you!-"

"Wai-wait wait." John had you there till he said that last bit. "How long do you think humans... live John?"

"Is it short?" John asks.

"Uh... I guess..."

"Like what? aaahundred and fifty ooor...?” John leans in towards you. 

"Try seventy.” You nod.

"Seventy!?" John’s fins flail out again.

"Give or take." You gesture so-so with your hand.

"Oh this won't do! You have the witch abaord, ask her to grant you immorality!" John demands it’s.

"She uh... can't do that." You shake your head no.

"The hell she can't! I can see her aura! She has to be my nannies age!"

"How old is that?" You ask him.

"Try Two hundred." He nods at you with wide eyes, like you’re stupid.

“Whoa... well she was supposed to be executed... and she does serve a demon...”

John jokes, “darling, don’t call your brother a demon it’s rude.”

You chuckle with him. You place a kiss on his nose. You meant she serves a real demon but your bro is a real peice of work, “maybe two demons then.”

John places a kiss on your lips again. “I love you... even if you’re silly and think with your heart and not your mind.”

You place another kiss on his lips. “I’ll try to think with both from now on...”

“I love you...” you tell John, “I promise I won’t do anything without discussing it with you first just... I knew you’d say no... that you seem so traditional you’d never break the rules you’re supposed to live by.”

John thinks for a moment, “that... is true in a way... I was lead here, but... no mermaid should even speak with a human... I mean, we used to hundreds of years before my father was born, but my grandma won’t tell me why we stopped. I guess I’ll never know, sad thing too... my father would love that I ended up with someone so caring and selfless.”

You give John a soft smile.

John tells you, “perhaps when my steed returns to the sea, my father will be able to feel your aura surrounding the darling beast.”

You tilt your head and question him, “wait... John, won’t your horse be like... killed? For smelling like me?”

John lightly shakes his head no, “maybe I would be... but my steed is merely an animal. He may be intelligent, but he knows not what he does. He cannot willingly betray our people by getting captured by a human.”

You ask, “How is getting caught a betrayal?”

“Mermaids are amazing swimmers, darling. We can’t get caught unless we’re being stupid or unless we’re doing it on purpose.” John gives you a light smile like you asked another dumb question. “Even then, we are supposed to fight back and the take pride in our deaths when others surface to kill us.”

“What if it’s a child who gets caught?” You sound concerned.

“...I... Dave, my love... lets not speak of such dreadful things, I have left behind that way of life and now I wish to learn of yours...”

“Alright...” you guess you should tell John something to ease his mind and to calm him down from what you just put him through. 

You open your mouth to speak but John places his finger tips to your lip to silence you. “Darling, dry me off first and let me lay next to you on the bed-thingy. I wish to cuddle up to you, as is my right as your husband.”

You nod and then ask, “do you not like the tub?”

John shakes his head, “I love this little thing, I just don’t like the fact you can slip into it with me.”

You laugh, “the hell I can’t.”

John smiles, “then come in here, I promise I won’t bite... that or anything else flirtatious.” 

Yeah... shit... You were right, John really is too good for you.


	12. Ein Tag mit dir

Your darling love is so silly today. He’s been cracking jokes and showing you how to _“prank”_ some of the staff after you confessed to your darling that you love a good practical joke. You just dropped a bucket of chum on one of the sea-men from the very top of the ship and the guy was itching for a fight... but once he looked up and he saw it was Dirk’s brother and the mermaid, he stormed off. You loved playing little jokes like this as a kid, oh and you’d get so scolded for it! Your mother would be furious that any child of hers would behave in such a way. Your dad though, he loved a good “prank”... only in secret though, he was one of the grandsons of the empress after all, always under the pressure of being the best he could be. You’re free of that burden now, you just hope he can figure out that you’re still alive... and maybe understand that you’re happy. 

You told Dave all of this last night when he was in your tub with you. He got into the water with you while still wearing the cloth that surrounds his body, he placed you on his lap and gave you all sorts of kisses as you giggled and listened to his stories about the surface world. Oh! He told you men don’t walk everywhere! Large land ships are pulled by steeds, just like yours and Dirk has several different carriages for the whole family to ride in! You’re so happy Dave told you his usual life involves fancy dinners and servants to take care of his needs. You were beginning to worry you’d have to do your own share of work just like how Dave pulls in fish for you everyday. Thankfully, now Dave knows that you're too good for that treatment. You might not be a prince anymore, but you still deserve to be pampered like one. 

Another day passes. The two of you have been walking around this ship, Dave showed you all the sights to see and officially gave you a full completed tour of the place... excluding the private _rooms_ of course. You think you still like visiting your steed the best, all of the fishes too are so cute and they added more. Your family used to keep fish like that around your kingdom too and keep them in place with a magic barrier. They are mostly decorative but you do recall having a little seahorse when you were a child, it would crawl around your fingers and you'd always wear it like it was one of your golden rings. Your grandmother wore an octopus like it was a necklace, so she couldn't even be mad you were doing something improper. 

You finished up the little tour and went back to your room to rest for the night. You fell asleep with Dave in your arms, the following day he asks Rose for more paste. She makes you both some as you marvel at her trinkets. Dave holds you up and shows you around her room. You stare in complete awe at how she can have so many things gathered together in one place and that it's all hers to use, if humans don’t have soulmates then you bet she could have her pick of the litter by just flashing a chest of filled with her wealth! You compliment her things but she doesn’t understand you, still Rose thanks you anyway and sends you both on your way. 

Dave hands you the paste to eat and has the rest himself. It doesn’t taste like anything but it’s sweeter than the most delicate fish eye. You softly smile at Dave and first thing you tell him is that you love him.

. . .

"No!" You stare at Dave with little balls of fire shining in your eyes. "No way!”

"I’ll show you everything when we get back home, you’ll be able to see in person.” Dave smiles at you.

"But it can’t be that big if it’s done by hand, can it?" You question.

"It covers my whole ceiling, my dad has it painted for me in my room when I was eight. I slept in all the other guest rooms for a full year till it was done. A whole team of artists drew it for me... and i’d hate to admit it but I love it now even more than when I was a kid.” Dave sighs.

"Wow..." You look up at the ceiling for scale. You bet Dave's room is even bigger if he was the son of a duke. You sit up and happily look down at Dave as you ask, "can you teach me how to paint!?"

"I don’t know how to paint all that well... but I can hire someone to teach you." Dave replies.

"Oh! And hire someone to teach me the language! The words you humans speak with are so funny! You all sound so uneducated dispute being so proper!”

"haha... thanks?" Dave looks a bit taken back by that comment, almost offended. 

"Oh, darling!" You go on, "you can hear me, can't you? Don’t I sound so charming and sophisticated. It’s different, is it not?" 

"Well you got me there, most people don't sound as proper as you do... but uh... you do talk like my grandma did though." Dave laughs. 

"How dare you!" You swipe at him and laugh.

You lay down next to Dave instead of hover over him, Dave looks at you with all of the love in his heart he can give. He looks almost mushy like a jellyfish, like you squished up his brain into a paste. He's definitely not the brightest star in the sky, but he is the one that guides you. 

You smile at Dave and almost roll your eyes when Dave starts twirling your hair again. He's getting fond of playing around with it, he even asks you how you cut it short if you live in the sea, like magic isn't the answer to everything mermaids do. 

"So..." You scan your mind for something to say, "you said you’re not good at painting... but you still tried? Can I see one?" 

Dave shakes his head no, "I don’t have any I ever kept I’m afraid. I burnt them all. But I can show you something better."

As Dave sits up you giggle, he sounds so proper now... you're a good influence on him. He's a _bad_ influence on you though, at least that's what your family would say. You stopped saying _we_ instead of _I_ and you started speaking in simpler terms because your darling love isn't very clever. Dave's lucky he never has to meet your family, your grandmother often spoke in riddles and your father would expect to always be called _Ihre Majestät._ Dave can't even say your name properly. He'd never be able to call your dad by his title, poor thing. 

Dave comes back. He brought something tan... looks like it's made of something like driftwood. You see it has six long lines in the middle of it. You don't know what is is so you ask.

"It's a guitar." 

"What does it do?" You poke at the bottom of it as Dave sits down besides you.

Dave laughs at your natural curiosity. Dave strums his hands against the lines, "it plays music."

Dave begins to play the guitar, singing a gentle song for you. You could understand his heart and his words. His song was one of absolute love and devotion. Those who lived under the sea hardly sang, you all danced as an art form, that or wove patterns into baskets. Music was hardly recognized as an art form, most you've ever seen of an instrument is children banging rocks together just to make noise. Here on the surface you don't hear the gurgles of water running past you or air escaping from the ground under the sand. You only hear Dave's voice and the sounds of his guitar. His fingers run up and down the tool in his hand as he uses it to craft you art in a way almost unrecognizable to you. It's beauty beyond the likes you've ever seen.

You lay down on the bed and sigh and airy sigh. Dave starts to turn red and his voice cracks when he says the word, "dARling."

You start laughing, you snuggle your head into the pillow and focus your gaze on his face, blood red like his perfect eyes. 

You still make him nervous, like he's a little guppy you're gonna swallow whole. He better watch out, playing music for you like that with a voice that gentle... you might consider making another move if he isn't careful...

No... you know you shouldn't. Your little lover is too scared of your perfection, of your beauty. He'll just dash off again if you offer yourself up to him, like a funny little angelfish. 

Dave stops playing and he stops singing, you voice the thought you just had, "you're my funny little anglefish." You lift up your hand to swat at his guitar. You end up strumming the lines. You make music yourself, you smile and laugh.

Dave smiles back at you. He's so darling and sensitive, he's covering his face now! Even calling him little names makes him get all unraveled. Poor thing, he's never going to taste your body at this rate.

You offer him up your arms instead. You yawn and show him you're tired. You want to rest and you need Dave in your arms now to do it. 

Dave puts away his funny little guitar and helps you under the sheets. He tucks you under them and makes sure you're all cozy.

Dave leaves again to use the restroom. You complain by chirping and your heart wells up with sadness. He explained to you humans have to take care of a few things in private but you still don't care for that. You know it's part of his customs and you have to get used to it, but you refuse to be happy about it. Once Dave comes back you slap your tail up and then back down on the bed. You give him wide eyes, like a goby asking for a treat. Dave apologizes for leaving your side and when he gets closer your tail starts slapping against the bed even faster. You don't hide any of your emotions when you're around Dave. Your excitement is his excitement anyway. To be honest, part of you is thinking Dave leaves so often to use the bathroom just to get you to cheer upon his return. 

When Dave settles next to you in bed, you wrap him up good and tight and make sure that the covers are fully... well... covering him!

After a while your arms get tired of holding him so tight. You turn around, you tell your instincts to give it a rest, Dave isn't going to float away and if you wake up without him besides you, you're going to give him hell.

You turn around in bed, your tail slapping Dave's legs as you do. Dave wraps his arms around you instantly, he must suffer from the same instincts, even with growing up on land. Sweet little clownfish.

Maybe he's less like a cute little fish and more like a big strong shark though...

His arms are so strong... and his voice is so beautiful too, unlike anything you've ever heard. No... no no no! 

You start panting, this is not how you wanted the night to go! With Dave having to reject you again. 

You turn around, your tail lifting up and slapping down with a sad flop. You stare up at your love with a frown on your face. 

Dave gives you a caring smile, he’s telling you it’s okay.

You’ll get through this night together. 


	13. something taken

John's looking up at you with a frown, you smile back at him. You give him a little peck on the lips to tell him it's alright.

He lets out a sad chirp. He's getting hot again. You feel it well up on your chest and in your gut too. He's going to get so stressed, you bet it’s going to be just like last time... with him grabbing onto you as his body begs him to seduce you. You don't want to torture your husband again...

So you won't.

You smile down at John and trace your fingers up his waist with one of your hands. You ask him softly, “if I do anything you don’t like... let me know. If we stop being able to understand each other, don't be afraid to smack me. I don’t care if you slap me, I’d rather you do that then I overstep my bounds, okay?”

"Da...Dave?” John looks up at you with a flicker of hope in his wide, ocean-blue eyes.

You're starting to turn red. John's really doing a number on you. Your mind's filled with racing thoughts. You're not sure how you're even going to... _do_ this, but you'll do anything to spare John from any more pain.

"Are you alright... my sweetheart?" John sounds like he's concerned for you... you guess you were silent for too long.

"Sorry..." You chuckle as you fidget with his waist. "I'm just a little nervous." 

"I can tell, I would expect that from any man who dare view me in this light. I am a sight to behold...”

John starts feeling up his body and nearly dancing in bed for you again. John traces his hand over yours and then the rest of his waist as he softly asks you, “is this going to be our love nest, my darling?”

You swallow down spit and then nod, "it is.”

"And... you already seduced me with your musical skill... you’ve shown me so many things during my stay here too." John sounds like he's both comforting you and trying to turn you on. "...I’d say we’re ready to cement our marriage.”

You build up the nerve to say, "can I just say this before we do anything else...? You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever laid eyes on.”

"I should hope so, I don't think there is a thing on this blue Earth that can rival my beauty.” John smiles like he's well aware of how he looks and seems.

"aaaand you’re not humble.” You smile at him.

"When has a prince ever been humble?” John guides your hand with his down to his tail.

You're at a loss for words.

"Hmm...?” John tilts his head into the pillow. 

You pull him closer to you, slowly moving him up to your lips. John sinks his tongue into your mouth and begins fiddling with your hair. He's tugging at it now, his heats in full effect. He's panting into your mouth and out of his nose. He's fucking geared up, you grab his tail to settle it down, he's swinging it around again to match his excitement. He pulls away and starts nibbling at your neck. He's panting against your bare skin and tugging at your clothes. You sit up and undress yourself. John chirps out a little cheer as he watches you stand to remove your pants after you took off your shirt. You slowly remove your bottoms, your length pops out, already fully erect and leaking. John eyes it, "now that's unique..."

You stand right where you are as John analyzes your naked body. He seems like he's amused with what he's looking at. John looks back up at your eyes, "well? Come now." John's calling you over. He wants you closer to him now. You comply.

You skirt over the sheets. You crawl over John as he lays down on the bed. His tail lifts up to graze the inside of your thighs as you lerk over him.

John's giving you eyes as he places a limp wrist up to his forehead, he’s smiling now like he has you cornered even though you’re on top of him.

John's turning his bottom towards you. He’s presenting the back side of his tail to you. Shining blue scales, glizening even with the lights all shut off. 

You don’t know what to do from here, all you know is that the golden ball hanging off your neck is starting to heat up, like John's soul is a moment away for burning you for making him wait any longer.

John pants and laughs. You start feeling up his tail with one of your open palms. John shuts his eyes, he lets out a light hum. 

"Do you like that?" You ask, uncertain of the answer, “does that feel nice?”

"I love the feeling of you admiring me... it feels so lovely to have your eyes tracing over me... like I’m a little meal.” John chuckles, he's gaze is the same as a shark trapping a fish into a corner, there's no way for the damned thing to escape it's fate, or the things jaws.

You grab John's tail to steady your balance, although you grab it rougher than you wanted to, with one hand. John jumps a little, "oh!" He starts chuckling again, "frisky, aren't we?"

You start feeling around where his bottom would be. John bites his lip. You think you’re getting somewhere, you just keep reading his face.

He looks like he's getting hotter when you trail your finger around where you think... there it is. You find a hole. It’s already wet with slick.

"oh, this is so dirty...” John smiles. “I pictured you touching me there but... oh wow...”

You stick your finger in. You feel the golden ball on your chest start sizzling like it's burning hot. 

"D-dave." John moans, "Oh wow. Oh my goodness."

"John." You whisper his name as you lean forward to kiss his lips once. You stick another finger inside of him and he gasps at the feeling.

You sink your tongue into his mouth again as you finger fuck him. 

John's eating up every second of it. His self-assured attitude is melting away as he wraps his arms around your back. John breaks away from your kiss and moans for you to fuck him.

You pull your fingers away from his tail. John makes eyes at you as he covers his mouth with his hand. 

You align yourself with his hole. John watches, looking down at the scene with excitement. You begin slipping your head in. John lets out a long moan. You hault yourself and let John adjust, you're two inches in and you still five to go. 

John moans again for more. You give him another inch as slow as you can. John groans like you're killing him. He begs you, "faster, Dave -ah- I need it."

You slowly push your entire length in. John yelps when you fully enter him.

He's tight and shit he's wet. It just feels like you stuck yourself into a jar filled with some hot gel. It's so fucking good. You want more, but you know John needs time to-

"Fuck me... Dave, just make me yours."

You start pumping into him. "I'll do whatever you say, just keep talking, baby."

"Hm... call me baby again." John moans as you push your hips into him.

"Shit... you're so tight, baby." You tell him.

John lets a moan escape from his gut, he starts laughing as he talks, "ah ah ha... fucking more..."

Hearing John curse like that is making you even fucking hotter. You start pounding into him. One thrust at a time. You slam into his hole and when you hit a certain spot John starts moaning in a frenzy of vile curses. 

"Oh! Hell! Tha-that! Right fucking there! Sh-shit! Dave!"

You start pounding that spot, making sure to align yourself just right to hit it almost every time you thrust into him. 

"Make me get there!" John growls at you, "fucking make me get there, Dave. Just fucking get me there. Fucking finish me." 

John's all about himself right now, he wants all the love in the world. Not even asking if you like it... shit he's so selfish it's turning you on.

You start asking him, "yeah? baby, you wanna cum?"

"I- _ah!_ I want you to fucking keep pounding me.. right there! right there!" John's begging for more.

"Shit... you're so fucking tight... I might..." No, you can't let yourself cum before John, he'll fucking kill you, you can feel it.

"Fucking make me cum!" John demands. It's getting harder and harder to hold on.

"I- I!" You try to slow down your pace but John keeps begging you for faster. You're getting overwhelmed. You're going to cum. You're going to.

John suddenly starts convulsing. He's gasping for air and you feel something hot hit one of your knees. You guess that John just came.

You fucking rail John now. You're gonna fucking cum in that slick hole of his. Shit. You fucking need this and you know John needs your cum too.

You reel your head back and flex your neck. You grunt as you finish, and pour everything you've got into his hot fucking hole. 

John moans, feeling two distinct waves of relief wash over him. He got to fucking cum hard, that's the first wave, and then the next is when you came. You ended John's heat. 

You can feel the hot gold ball around your neck cool, it's shimmering down, John's soul is at peace now and looks like John's already passed out. He fell asleep. You want to clean him up but you already felt his scorn earlier for leaving his side... you'll take a bath with him tomorrow morning. 

Fuck it, you're tired. 

. . .

You wake up, John wrapped in your arms, you're wrapped up in his. John breathes out a light, but long sigh... like he's comfortable. 

John snuggles up to your chest and knocks the golden ball around as he does so.

John hugs you tight and places a kiss on your chest.

You feel the blanket shift as John moves closer towards you... then you feel something strange.

So unsettlingly strange you were sure you were just imagining things.

John jolts up. He starts screaming.

You sit up, you already know what he's screaming about.

"Was zur Hölle!? WaszurHölle!?WaszurHölle!?!" John's screaming in German as he's staring down at his lap. Only... for some reason you understand all of his words as he speaks.

"My beautiful tail!!!" John is mourning the loss of his scaly beautiful tail as he looks down at his brand new legs.

John trembles as he attempts to stand up and pull himself off the bed. You get up right away to catch him when he inevitably falls from using his brand new legs for the first time.

You're gonna grab him... but not before you take at least a sec to get a peek at that... _'shit... that's nice.'_

"Stop looking at my bottom!" John turns to you and yells. "Help me fix this!" 

You rush over to his side and hold him up. He looks completely clean to you, no hints of anything happening last night at all. He isn't sweaty, he isn't even leaking-

"What are your priorities!? Stop checking if I need to wash up!" John yells at you. "Focus, Dave! My beauty is gone! It just disappeared overnight! Poof!" John gestures a cloud appearing and disappearing with one of his hands.

"I can assure you, you're still beautiful-"

"Not as beautiful as before!" John shakes his head as you hold him up.

Yeah... sure John thinks that. You dwell on just how good John's legs are gonna be wrapped around your-

John interrupts your train of thought. "You have such a one track mind! Sure _you_ enjoy it! But me- I- I can't be seen like this!?!"

"Wait... what?" You feel your brows lower and pull down your lids.

You feel your head race with thoughts, mostly about how panicked you are and you have some thoughts about the fact that your husband is an idiot. You don't think that... and why is the voice in your head John's...? _'oh shit.'_

"Can you read my thoughts?" You feel panicked yourself now.

John nods his head and screams in your mind that's not important at the moment, but you fail to see how it isn't!

You can never look at the sous-chef back at home ever again! You always pictured him leaving his wife after he fucked you raw and got a taste for your fine ass.

No not only him! Now you can never look at another guy ever! ever! again! 

John's mind is screaming in your head about his missing tail. He wants the black magic witch to come back and use her dark _magicks_ on his hideous human legs!

You start hyperventilating, sure you had a few crushes here and there and you always had a thing for burly men with hairy chests and tiny guys with perfect bodies- 

John's screaming in his head about how his life is completely over. How he's never going to swim again! How walking on land with such ugly legs is a curse he wouldn't wish on his worst enemy. 

You hold John up and he starts falling. He's panicked but you're sweating even worse. 

Yeah! John is perfect! You wouldn't trade him for the world! But you can't control your thoughts! You see a hot guy with nice thighs or a burly man with an open shirt and you wanna just picture how they'd be in bed! It's the product of being lonely and having a hyperactive imagination! You hope John will understand, but you **know!** you know! John's going to take it as a betrayal. Even though you'd never leave John for anything! You feel like crying. You just like picturing men sleeping with you! Not actually doing it! John's the only man for you!

"OH MY GOD! SHUT UP!" John starts yelling at you. "I can't think with you crying in my head! I don't care if you get hot for every man that passes you! Good fucking Lord! We have bigger problems!"

John's screaming in his head about how you need to help him fix this and about how whiny you are. You hear a voice ring in your head, _'it would be cute if the situation wasn't so dire!'_

John's sobbing in his head about getting back his beautiful perfect tail. He loves beautiful perfect scales and his little fins. Good Lord his fins!

John starts checking his head. He sighs when he notices they are still in tact.

He suddenly chops at the air, a row of sharp pointed perfect teeth pull out from his jaw. 

John crying in his head about his relief. He's thankful he's still not fully human. That seemed to be enough to calm him down for now. 

His mind is still racing and you focus on that, you focus on helping your loving husband. 

You help sit John back down on the bed.

"Things will be okay, we can figure something out." You smile softly at John.

John's heart is still in his throat. You can imagine that John is going to be unnerved for a while, you can have your own freakout later after you get everything situated.

John giggles at you. Even when he's panicked you can still make him laugh, that's enough to make _your_ heart jump up to your throat. 

John looks up at you and places a kiss onto your lips, the gold ball around your neck bounces up and hits John's chest as he tells you, "now that I can read your mind clearly... I see that even your thoughts are pure." 

John laughs and shakes his head. "I'm sorry if I keep yelling at you for the next passing hours, I pray I'm not going to be grieving the loss of my tail, but if I am I will probably become... ugly."

"Hey, things like this can happen in a marriage. We'll get through this." You grab onto John's checks and place a kiss on his forehead. You pull away as you tell him, 

"Let's both put some clothes on and then we can go see Rose."

John sighs as he rests on the edge of the bed, "thank you, darling."

You smile down at him, for a moment... admiring his body again. He really does have some nice legs. 

John gives you a pout, you can feel in your soul that that he likes the attention.

You give him another kiss on the top of his head and then begin your search for clothes in your luggage that John can wear.


	14. Etwas Neues

"I'm sorry, Dave... but I don't believe that I _can_ help you with this." 

You feel so embarrassed, thankfully, no one important -other than your husband- is going to see you look... out of sorts... You look so hideous without your gorgeous tail, you are praying for it's quick return. 

You're sitting down at a _table,_ Dave is standing above you as the witch sits across from you. Rose made you some hot water with crushed _things?_ inside of it. Even with your current dread, you admire the pinkish color it turns into.

Rose takes up a solemn tone, "I'm afraid I lack knowledge about mermaids and the kind of magic they embody... I'm just as shocked as you two are that this happened.”

The black magic witch is speaking in words you don't understand again. Dave's been repeating her words just so you could understand their conversation. 

You frown when Dave tells you that there's nothing Rose can do due to bot understanding the magic that flows through your veins. Perhaps it is a good thing she is studying you then. If she learns enough about your magic then she may be able to help you, and if she becomes more acquainted with your body she might be able to fix you too... but, there should still be a limit to her examinations. You will allow her to touch your legs yes, but you don't wish for her to get close to your torso. You tell Dave that you are willing to work with her respects your limits. 

Rose thoughtfully nods as Dave repeats your thoughts back to her, she's still sitting across from you and tapping her long black nails against her tiny...what do the human's call it again? The word rings in your head _"cup."_

_"Richtig, danke, Schatzi."_

You lean closer over the table and towards Rose to get a better look at the _cup_ she's sipping from.

Rose suddenly sits up, she gives Dave a knowing glance. One that must act as a warning that she's used to giving your husband. You understand why she gave your husband a heads up when the older Strider enters the room.

Your husband laughs in his head at your response. You simply stick up your head and refuse to look at him as Dirk enters the room and stalks towards all three of you.

"You sent for me?" Dirk's holding himself above everyone here again... not like you're not his brother-in-law sitting down having tea with his literal brother and -what you know now to be- a faithful friend.

You think to yourself _'Sie sind so hochnäsig.'_

Dave looks over at you, telling you with his look and his heart that you should be nice. You feel a twinge in your heart tell you that you want to do whatever Dave asks of you, but your face still bears your resentment towards Dirk. But... he did comfort you kindly once, perhaps you can spare your resentment for another date. Dave smiles at you in response to your compliance. 

Dave then looks up at his brother, "I don't think you can help us with this... but we ran into a... problem."

Dirk looks over at you, straight away. He must think it's strange you're wearing clothes. Dave's white cloth top is so big around your chest and your arms, you didn't realize how much muscle Dave had till last night, feeling his hands wrap around your waist and your tail... talk about dangerous, you might just get addicted to the feeling of him grabbing you with his big strong arms. Dave's telling you to quiet down in your head. He can hear all your thoughts now and even picture some of the same things you’re imagining... that only makes you want to tease him more, but seeing the company that's present. You resist. 

You smile up at Dirk and kindly thank him for comforting you when he saved you with the dark magic witch. Dirk replies with a single nod. 

You lift up your hand for Dirk to take, you wish to stand. You expect that he help you do so.

Dirk takes your hand as you begin to stand up. You feel Dirk's hand tighten around your palm when he notices you have legs. You look up at Dirk, he’s standing tall over you. He wraps his hand around your waist to steady you as you stand. You snap your teeth at him, he raises his hand up from your waist to your other hand. You give him a kind smile, only Dave may touch you in such a place, no matter the situation. 

As you are smiling up at Dirk, he gives you a strange look. Like he's trying to piece together just why you’ve changed from the bottom down... oohhh... looks like he got it.

Dirk cocks his head to look at his brother. He doesn't do much else than give Dave a look, but Dave is already red and covering up his forehead with one hand and trying to look away.

You giggle as Dave screams in his head how embarrassed he is. You reassure him, out loud, that you two are married and your love will take many forms, including sex and even if Dave's family knows you two have bonded fully in body and in soul, Dirk is also well aware of your commitment to one another. You happily announce your marriage to Dirk and inform him that you never expected to gain legs from the action of bonding, but you desperately wish for your tail back so you may return to your former state. You hold your head high and say dream for a moment in your head about your former beauty. You focus on the image of your lovely tail shining as you swam through the middle seas. 

Dave sighs out of his nose and settles down. He's still red, but he seems more proud now that you inspired him with your image. Oh, you love seeing Dave look all tall like that when he sits up, your heart swells up and then Dave gets all flustered again.

You chuckle... but you do still have real problems, you can't let Dave's cuteness distract you.

Dirk sets you back down, it's so hard to balance on two legs. You don't know how the humans around you do it. 

Dave suddenly clears his throat and speaks up again, 

"so... like John said, we both want to know if there is a way to get his tail back."

"What did Rose say?" Dirk looks over at Rose and asks her a question in a foreign language, and she responds in a language you don't understand, but the way she's shaking her heavy head is telling you that she still knows nothing.

They continue to talk with one another, you can only understand Dave as he talks and some bits that Dave repeats occasionally in his head as he thinks on them.

"Can't you do more research?" Dave asks Rose. She says a few things in response, you stare at Dirk as he says something... apparently about old studies on mermaids. Looks like humans know next to nothing about mermaids. 

Your darling sighs out of his nose and turns to look at you. He gives you sad eyes. In his mind you know he doesn’t want to give up hope, but he tells you out loud Dirk knows of nothing that can help. 

You place your hand over Dave’s. You smile up at him, your glance telling him exactly what your heart is saying. You’re not going to give up hope... but you can reserve there’s nothing that can be done for the time being. Unless of course, you accept that you go through a full examination. You give a determined little smile at Dirk, telling him with a look to bring it on.

. . . 

Dave’s telling you to hold his hand and to squeeze it if you need to. You don’t know why, but something about what Dirk is preparing is scary to him. Rose is hovering over you like a hungry great white. You look over at Dirk. He prepped something that’s like a tube? With a long silver thing? Dave tells you that it’s a needle, he says it’s going to draw blood so they can take a closer look at you and maybe even your magic. You tilt your head and then tell Dirk to let Dave hold the blood-sucking tool. Dave takes it, and Dirk directs him on where to puncture you. You apologize to your beloved husband that you two shall share whatever pain befalls you’re vessel. Dave starts shaking a little. You offer up yours hand for Dave to hold as he used the tool with one hand.   
You sit up straight as a bitter pain shoots through your arm. You endure it, it’s nowhere near as bad as your manners instructor putting sea urchins in your back while demanding you keep a straight face. This is nothing more than a slap on the hand to you, your husband on the other hand is struggling. He’s grabbing down on your hand and you lower your head and ask him if he’s okay. Dave whimpers our that he’s fine. Poor little darling, he’s so funny. He looks like such a brave proud lion-fish but he’s just a little calm. Always afraid of any danger. You giggle as Dave removes the needle. You take Dave by the arm where and find the place that mirrors where you got stabbed. You kiss Dave’s arm as Dirk attempts to touch yours. You hiss at Dirk as he pats down your arm. There’s no blood to wipe, your skin healed itself in an instant. You feel no more pain and even if you did, it's inappropriate for anyone but your lover to heal you. Dave seems better to now that you kissed him. Dirk examines your blood. He sees that it’s red, just as his is... but it sparkles with grace in a way only mermaid’s blood can. Dave admires it for a moment, thinking that it looks like glitter. You’d love to see what he’s referring to. Oh Dave’s mind is filled with so many little trinkets and wonders. You love when he pictures his old home. How beautiful it would be to roam the land with him. You’re mines pulled back to the situation when Dirk asks you to lay down on Rose’s bed, but to strip first. Dirk tells Dave to help you undress and cover your bottom with a sheet. 

Right away you feel a spark of adrenaline rush through you. Your heart races. Dave undressing you... so Dirk can look at your body. Humans seem so perverse! They must dress just to invite others to undress them! It must be normal to their culture but still... the act is so lewd. Dave's thoughts ring in your head, something about humans dressing because they feel ashamed of their own nudity. He can only seem to picture enjoying being naked around you. You give him a little laugh.

The room is empty now for all but you and Dave. You invite him to undress you by speaking, "Hilf mir bitte schön." You lift up your hands and Dave's sleeves have once again accidentally fallen to be longer than your hands, accidentally... did you mention that it was a complete accident. Dave rolls his eyes and smiles. He comes over to help you. You know that he thinks you look adorable when his shirt fits you like this and when you show off that it's too long for your tiny little arms. Dave comes over and helps you strip yourself of your shirt. You feel a slight bit embarrassed now, you look away as Dave kneels down and tells you to put your hand on his shoulders and try to stand for a moment while he gets off your pants. He's going to be sitting right down here, about to get a face full of dick. Oh your husband's thoughts are so funny! He's so strange to you. Always making little jokes with funny little words. You tell him to quiet down and focus on the task of helping everyone study your body and your magic so hopefully, you can find a cure for having legs. Dave nods and agrees. He pulls down your face and _"oh god, there it is."_ Dave looks the other way. Apparently your body is too alluring to him, you feel his mind try to push away the idea of sex, which only makes his thoughts more chaotic. You sigh and start singing a song out loud. One calming peaceful song, it's about a tiny little fish that swam in the ocean and it's mother was as big as a whale and swore to protect her child till he grew up big enough and strong enough to swim on his own. Once Dave had you settled onto Rose's bed, the song was basically over. Dave was calm and your lower half was mostly covered. Dave told you, "that was beautiful."

You tell him softly that your mother used to sing it to you when you were a little guppy. You state that you're sorry that you don't know many songs, but you thought he could use the distraction from your beauty. Dave laughs. He thinks it's funny your voice distracted him from your lovely body. Then his mind starts to wonder back to how you're naked and- you instantly tell him in your head that once his brother is in the room, he's feelings will change.

Dave rushes to get Rose and his brother into the room to take a look at you. Dave reminds them that anything under the sheet folded over your lap is off limits. "Seriously, don't touch it. He's going to bite your hand off if you do."

You giggle over how Dave starts to sweat when Dirk starts feeling your neck. He tells you that he's feeling for something. Dave translates. You don't know what lymph nodes are but they sound vile. Dirk is massaging your neck now. You don't like how intimate it feels. You whine in your head and pout over at Dave he seems fine with the action. If Dave is fine with it then you can ignore the feeling. You just shut your eyes and focus on your husband's mind. He's intently watching you right now, he seems like he's nervous, nervous over nothing. You picked such a funny little clam to fall for. Oh well, you guess you were basically born to be his soulmate and vice-versa, so you technically didn't choose him. But if it were up on the table, you would absolutely pick Dave over any other man. You think you'd be willing to fight to the death for the right to marry this man. He's so gentle and kind and- you don't like how Roses is picking at the bottom part of your legs but whatever... what were you thinking about... _'_ _me? '_

 _"Oh ja, und wie ich dich liebe."_ You sing in your mind.

 _"You really do love me that much?"_ Dave is so funny to ask such a dumb question. Of course the answer is yes! You'd lay down your life for him. You'd give him anything he'd ask for gladly, his heart sings across your whole soul that he'd do the same. You already knew that. You could feel it the day you met him that he would protect you and he wants what's best for you. But now you're questioning if having two people poke at your legs and talk about them like you can't hear them! Well, you technically can't listen to them... but you _can_ hear them! You ask Dave to translate for you what they are saying. _"Uh... Dirk's saying that your body is unique, and still probably mostly mermaid."_

Maybe your body can return to normal if it still mostly is normal. Uh- not that being a human is bad it's just... not for you! Dave seems to understand. He doesn't want you to do anything you're uncomfortable with ever or live anyway you're uncomfortable with either. Aw, he's always so sweet. You've never met anyone so considerate who expects nothing in return for his kindness. The moment your mind flashed to letting him pound you while you wrap your human legs around him, he reassured you that he always just wants whatever works best for you, just because he loves you... not because he wants your body. Oh yeah. Anything he asks for he's gonna get. 

Dirk and Rose both pull away. Dirk is using some stick thing to play around with a really long thin... rock? _"It's a clipboard, and he's writing down notes. It's in -oh shit what did he say before...? -our written language. I can read if back to you if you want, you sweet little thing."_

You start laughing out loud. You cover your mouth as you chuckle. Rose and Dirk both stare at you and then look at your husband who is turning red.

"Wait- I didn't mean to say- think... that!" Dave defends himself. "I just, you call me so many nice names."

You keep chuckling. You mock him by saying, "süß- _ha!_ \- kleine. hehhehheh! Ding." 

Dave's so red. You sit up and stare at him, he's standing at the end of the bed. You turn to Dirk and ask, "bist sie fertig?"

Dirk nods in response. You turn towards your husband again and tell him kindly that you'd like to take a break in your head. You expect that he escort Rose and Dirk back out again and maybe bring you back a salmon or two.

Dave chuckles he offers up a solution to you all, "I think we did enough for today. Why don't you two check out the blood and John and I will have something _small_ from the kitchen."

Dave looks at you when he says small. You give him a little pout. Apparently, the _head of this ship_ has some things to say about your eating habits. It's not your fault you have two stomachs! You feel like kicking up your tail to show add to the unpleasantness of your pout, but you kick up your two legs instead. Which just looks stupid. Not to mention it shifted your blanket. Dirk gets a peak at what was underneath and then scribbles something onto the _notes_ he was taking. 

. . .

At dinner you felt so ashamed, you're sure no one really noticed you have human legs. Dave's been trying to keep them covered with a sheet as he carries you around everywhere, but it's obvious your tail is gone! Why else would you be wearing a sheet! You'd never need to hide your beauty! Only your shame! You pout as Dave takes you over to the sea deck. You're still hungry so he's gonna catch you some more food. You look out to the ocean and sigh. You're never going to be able to swim properly again. Then an idea flashes in your head... it's not one of your ideas... but one of Dave's. He thinks about how it would be easier for you to learn to swim before you could learn how to walk. You agree with that, you think you could put your dining on hold if it means you could get back in the water. Dave's probably going to take you to visit your darling hippocamp again. You'd like to say goodbye actually. Dave just got Dirk to agree to finish his studies on your special breed of hippocamp and then let him go. 

You hold your head high as your husband carries you over to the other side of the ship and has you enter the same room as before. Your hippocamp is sleeping. You don't want to wake him up but... Dave silently reassures you that he's going to make sure to give him a proper send off and that includes a goodbye hug from you. What a darling little idea. You brightly smile as Dave carries you over to the other end of the place. You spot the same fish from before swimming around. Reminds you of your grandmother's pets, all forced to swim around the small magic barrier she set up. You picture it in your head, you completely forgot Dave would see the images as well. Dave seems invested now in learning more about your old life. You chuckle as Dave opens the door as quietly as he can as he asks you in your head about if you ever had any pets. You tell him you loved to collect a few seahorses and you'd wear them as rings when you were a baby, and you once found a tuna as a child and you brought it home and demanded that no one eat it cause it was your new best friend and your word was as good as law, till of course your sister was hungry and lazy so she started challenging you for the right to eat your poor tuna. Dave is able to picture you as a child. He thinks it's quite adorable. You recall how he looks in that image he showed you. The one with his brothers. He was just as cute! Dave carries you up and over to the water. He begins to unwrap you from the sheet. He pauses like he wants to take off your shirt. You try to lift it up over your head on your own. You get stuck. You chirp for Dave to help you. He does and then removes his own shirt. Dave starts stripping off his pants too. He's still wearing those pants he wears under the pants. Dave starts taking off your pants. He tries to calm himself, he's trying to undress you without getting excited. _"huh. Maybe people do wear clothes just to invite others to undress them."_ You laugh as he thinks. _"Maybe that's part of it."_

You struggle for a little as Dave frees you from your clothes. Pants are so hard to take on and off. What a hassle!

You can't wait to get back into the water, but part of you doesn't want to... relearning how to swim is going to feel so childish.

Dave wraps his arms around you and plants a kiss on your head. He tells you softly, "it's okay. It might not be permanent anyway." 

You shut your eyes. Dave is so kind. You are so lucky you have him. 

Dave holds you for a moment before he stand up and then sits on the ledge. He places his legs into the water and then invites you to scooch closer. You pull yourself closer to him using your hands. Dave extends a hand when your near and you take it. You pull your legs up and place them into the water. Dave sinks into the water and you follow. Instantly, you feel something strange. Just as soon as you fully submerged yourself- you scream and cheer. You wrap your hands around Dave and plant kisses all over his face, he cured you! You're beautiful amazing perfect tail! It's back! You swim around happily and sing chirps of pure joy. Dave watches as you circle him. You sink into the water and the reamerge just to leap up and sink back down! You sneak around behind him, you wanna surprise him by kiss him from behind, but he already knows your plan. Your minds are one. You still do it anyway and Dave pretends to be surprised. 

You feel so elated to be normal again! You can't wait to show the others they don't need to study you anymore! It was so boring and dreadful! You're sure they are going to be glad you're no longer going to let them conduct any more horrible tests on you!

. . .

When Dave dried you off with the sheet... your tail turned back into legs. At least Dave was kind enough to catch you more fish to eat. 

You're crossing your arms and pouting the whole way over to your room. You're dumb stupid legs are gonna keep popping up so long as you're dry... maybe you can sit in a small tank and Dave can carry you around? Dave tells you he's not that strong.

Ugh.

Dave feels upset that you're upset, but you know his mind. Dave's really thinking he can't wait to dive into your ass and hold your thighs apart. Pervert.

Dave keeps apologizing, _"I'm so fucking sorry! I know! I know! It's bad! I shouldn't be thinking- but my god, just feeling how fucking fat this ass is. Shit."_ Dave starts picturing you belly down on his bed, looking up at him while he checks out your ass. He keeps picturing you in all these naughty poses. You remind him to wipe the drool off his chin by swiping at his jaw with your palm.

"Huh?" Dave asks out loud. "Oh shit."

_"Sorry! Babe, honestly! I just- suger cube! Shit! No not that! I mean, John! Or however the fuck I am supposed to say your name- god, I am so stupid. I can't even say my husband's name right. I bet he's like honestly pissed with me right now too, I would be if I were him. I can't stop thinking about sex and how badly I keep fucking up... and he can read my fucking thoughts!!!"_

You can't be mad at such a bupy-fupy-guppy. You pout and give him a little kiss as he takes you into your room. You're going to let him smack your bottom around and see if you still get slick on command or whatever it is that he wants. He keeps trying to correct you. _"no not on command! I don't want to sound so rude! I'm sorry, yo-youhagas! I'm sorry I keep fucking up!"_ You giggle. He's starting to get a little annoying now. But you think if you just settle down on his bed and talk for a little before you give him what he wants he'll be calmer. First things first though. You say out loud, "Johannes" and then giggle.

"Yo..." Seems like he's trying to sound it out. You smile softly. He's trying his best to learn how to say it. He's so silly, he keeps beating himself up for not being able to get it right right away. You bet you can't say _Dave_ properly, apparently you have a funny little accent he thinks is cute. You wouldn't be surprised if everyone thought that to be honest. Your mother spoke a different language than your father did when they first met and she always had an accident, it probably rubbed off on you.

Dave smiles at you as you help him break down your name. "Jo"

"Jo." He says.

"-han" You say.

"-han." He repeats.

"-nnes." You nod.

"Johannes." Dave correctly says.

You smile as bright as the sunlight reflecting off the waves. You wrap your arms around his shoulders and kiss him as many times as his heart can handle as a reward. He's giving you so many wonderful gifts today. You can spare giving him just the one. Dave interrupts your thoughts again just to tell you, _"everything you do is a gift to me."_


	15. still learning

John's resting on your chest, he's fast asleep. You spent the whole night pumping into his ass but before that, he posed for you in all these different ways. John seems to think it's funny how obsessed you are with his ass and his _new_ body. Seems like Johannes has come around to his new legs seeing that he hasn't really parted with his tail. He's still embarrassed to be seen with legs, he seems to think that his tail is his best feature. Does he not see that he has the cutest smile and the most beautiful eyes you've ever seen or ever will see? Does John not see that he has such an adorable face in general? You think every part of him is perfect... that's probably why he _loved_ showing himself off to you. John loves showing off that fat ass to you. He was fucking thrilled to wrap his legs around your hips while you were ramming full speed into his ass. 

John's eyes slowly open up. He breathes in a soft breath. John's eyes flicker up to see yours. You softly pet the back of his head and tell him, "hey."

John mutters something as he yawns. He tells you that something strange just happened to him. He's just had pictures and words play in his mind while he slept. 

"You mean... like a dream?"

John's eyes widen, "Ich habe von Träumen gehört!"

"Do mermaids not dream?"

John shakes his head no. He tells you that he... was picturing his own body in different poses. Great. He can read your thoughts even in his dreams.

John readjusts.

John pulls himself up onto your body and happily rests his head on your chest again. You wrap your arms around him and he giggles. Apparently he's only comfortable if your arms are wrapped around him or vise-versa. 

John wants to sleep a bit more, but he also wants to keep listening to your thoughts. He seems to think that you're adorable with how much of your thoughts just revolve around how pretty he is. He lightly hums and pictures how cute your face is and how pretty your eyes are. He actually likes your eyes. You always thought that they looked strange. Your parents even thought it was a sign you were cursed. John thinks your hair and your complexion is unlike anything he's ever seen. He thinks you look bright and make him feel fuzzy, _like a cloud._ You always thought your hair was too thin, and it being white like snow made you look too flashy. You stand out like a sore thumb. John mumbles out a hmmph. He seems upset that you're disturbing his rest with how you're _insulting your looks and therefor insulting John's taste._ John won't take any insults to his perfect, beautiful husband.

You chuckle as you pet the back of John's head and then kiss him.

You shut your eyes and picture what you always do when you sleep since you met him, you picture John's smile and his sweet laugh. John chuckles and snuggles up closer to your neck. Seems like he wants another kiss... and who are you to deny it. 

. . .

John just woke up. He's planting kisses all over your face. Probably because you just thought about how you're excited to start the day just to find some new way to make him laugh. You love his little laugh.

John pulls back and looks down at you with a big happy grin. God. You'd do anything just to see that smile.

John starts kicking his legs. He looks down at his legs. He seems a bit disappointed that he doesn't have his beautiful tail. With his tail, he is beautiful, like nothing you've ever seen... but with legs it's just the same. On land and off, he's completely flawless.

John snuggles up to you again. He's making it so hard to get up. You can't stop cuddling with him. Maybe you could stay in bed for a little longer.

The two of you start talking out loud, apparently John wants to see everything humanity has to offer with his own two eyes. He can see some visions of your life and you can see some of his. John pictured your home; horse carriages, servents, portraits, the works. You also saw flashes of John's family. His dad really fits the role of a sea king. His wrists are covered in gold, he had on even more bands than his son. John's dad has a small gold band wrapped around his head that has spikes on it to create a crown. John seems to miss him dearly, but he also knows that his dad's not going to hesitate to rip you to shreds for turning his son _somewhat_ human. 

Well. You can never step foot in the ocean again. John giggles. He seems to think every single one of your thoughts is funny. All of the phrases you think of and all of the funny second guessing you do is just _sooo cute! It's the cutest!_ John presses another kiss onto your lips. He places his tiny hands up against your chest again. You're starting to get another idea of what you two can do together in bed, after all... you are newlyweds. 

You start feeling up John's waist and you bring your hand down to his hips. John bites his lips. He snickers for a moment and then asks you if you ever think about anything other than sex. You kiss him and sink your tongue into his mouth for a moment, you bite down on John's lips as you think in your mind, _"it's more like I can't take my mind off of you."_

Not a moment later, John's legs are already wrapped around your body, his back is up against the bed. John's hole is slick and his cock is rock hard against your body. With each thrust you feel his four inches beat against your abs. You sip in a deep breath you can hear John's thoughts. He wants it harder, no not just harder... he wants it down right violent. You don't know if it's a mermaid thing, but John wants you to be rough with him and you want to toss him around. He wants you to be a naughty little scallop and snap at him. When you slow down and look down at his face, he looks away from you. He looks down and focuses on nothing. He's feeling a bit shy asking for something so... unyou. You smile down at him, you can do rough.

You picture slapping him across the face, loud enough and visual enough in your mind you hope John can get the picture. John gasps out loud. He covers his mouth and blinks a few times. Then he slowly glides his hands down to the sheets at his side. He grips onto them and bites his lip. 

You smack John right across the face and he winces. He's panting even harder. You think you might have just started yet another heat. You feel the ball on your chest flame up in heat. It's almost burning your skin. John loves how hard you just stuck him. He's grunting and chuckling at the same time. John's giving you eyes like he wants you to destroy him completely. His mind is screaming a million different vile things. You can't focus on anything other than how there's a sharp pain on your chest. That ball of gold is completely blazing on your skin, it's vibrating. You can feel it shake with each and every of John's breaths. 

John gives you a vicious smile and merciless glare. He lowers his chin down to his chest and you instantly grab his thighs and hold up his hips. You thrust into him as violently as you can. You force him to wrap his legs around you again, just like you like. You grab both his wrists and hold them down on the bed. John rolls his moans, he's panting out, "ah-ah-ja-ah! Mehr!" You grip down tightly around his wrists. You think John's getting the picture of why legs are nice to have. He keeps using his legs to pull you closer to him. With each thrust the bed springs bounce up and down, the noise is surging through the room. John is moaning through his teeth as he grunts at you for more. He wants to cum, he fucking wants your cum. You finish inside of him with a long groan. You grunt a few times and John laughs. He wiggles his ass a bit, just to tease you while you're especially sensitive. When your done you calm down. Your skin might have burns on you by the end of this from that hot ass gold ball housing John's fucking blazed up soul. It's hot like a mini sun and you're starting to like the feeling. You plant a kiss on John's lips as you start pumping his cock. Your hands are wet with sweat. John thrusts his head back into the pillow. He looks down at the scene. He covers his mouth with his hand. He looks at you like you're hurting him, but he's just fucking blown away by the feeling of you pumping him. You pump him faster, screaming in your mind you wanna see him cum and you need to see him cum hard. 

John tosses his head back again and finishes right into your hand. You pull away and let yourself fall out of John's ass. You watch your cum slip out of him. You breathe even heavier when you hear John groan. The whole thing is just too much for you. John laughs again. He tells you he's never felt more satisfied in his life.

. . .

The water feels so good on your body right now. The warm water in this tub is really soothing your aching muscles. Working into John none stop is a full time job. John's a hard mermaid to please, and now that he's realized that he wants it worse than rough in bed, you have to work even harder. You rest with John in between your legs. First time in forever you ever wanted a fucking smoke. 

John turns his head to face you, his tail fin is brushing up against your ankle as he turns and asks _'what's a smoke?'_

You picture it in your head, it's a lot easier to explain it that way. John is amazed with how bizarre the human world is. He tells you that the mermaid's he knows back at home extract euphoric toxin from puffer fish and other venomous fish to get a nice high, _'is that the same, my darling?'_

"Uh..." You're not sure how to respond. You never did anything hardcore like that. Apparently mermaids ride hard or don't ride at all. John giggles and asks you in your mind about the thing you used to spark up a bright red light. 

You explain that the picture in your mind was a lighter and it sparks up a fire.

John claps his hands together and cheerfully asks you to show him one! You think you still have one from when you were still smoking. You still like to play around with matches and lighters. You actually quit cold turkey pretty much a year after you started. Your bros complained that you smelt like shit and you always just fall in line with whatever they guide you to do... except for speak your mind. Apparently, that's something you have in common with your husband.

You look down at John, he's smiling up at you with closed eyes and pinchable cheeks.

He gives you eyes again and asks in his head if he's a _sexy little herring?_

You kiss him on the nose.

Yep. You've never seen a cuter fish.

. . .

John's eyes are fixed on the fire as you lay naked on your bed with John at your side. He looks almost like a cat right about to strike its prey. His eyes are huge. One of John's smaller fins sticks up. He seems like he's memorized by the flame. He moves his finger closer to touch it. Right away you flick the lighter close. 

John looks up at you, he could feel your shock. You didn't want him to get hurt.

John nods. He tells you he recalls that the luminescent shells in the bathroom are hot to the touch. He whines as he tells you the story of how he burnt his hands. You frown and then lightly laugh when he complains that Dirk didn't seem to care. Dirk only mocked him. Your husband seems to not care too much for your older brother, but John did warm up to him a bit. John knows that you seem worried that the two of them won't get along. He tells you softly in your mind that he feels a bit of admiration for Dirk's stoicism, a trait that most strong mermaids have. John also appreciates that Dirk saved him from a watery grave. You feel like that was more on Rose's part than Dirk's.

John giggles. He tells you in his head that he thinks the dark magic witch is scary, but secretly sweet under all that rage she bears in her tainted soul. You wouldn't be surprised if Rose's soul looked the same as a demons. John giggles and tells you that he's sure that they are not. 

Before you can even emote to that, you hear a knocking on your door.

You slip on some dark pants and walk to the door shirtless.

You hear your bro call for you,

"Dave. Come on." 

You open your door and say, "sorry, I just got out of the tub a moment ago."

"Right." Dirk looks at you with annoyance.

He glares in the direction of your bed and then back at you.

"I've been by this room three times. Each time and every time, I just walked away. But. In the future, I would like if when you ask me for a favor, you take time out of your _busy_ schedule to join me."

"Huh?" You give him a confused look.

Dirk takes a breath of air in and expels the words, "John's hippo-"

"Oh my god!" You shut the door and turn arou-

John laughs. He points at the door to point out that you slammed it on Dirk's face. He finds the gesture as funny as it is foreign to him. 

You open the door back up and apologize, rubbing the back of your neck as you do. 

"Uh, sorry." You look down at his shoes as you say, "we need a moment to get dressed."

"I know." Dirk gives you a look. He begins to walk away. "Meet me in the very middle of the ship, I will have the men bring the beast there. If you are not there to join us by the time we get the beast there, I will kick his ass off the ship myself and you'll just have to deal with John yourself."

You roll your eyes, you turn to John and tell him, "we need to get a move on. We have a time limit."


	16. Heute geht es los

It's so kind of your husband's brother to give your darling steed a proper send off. You were allowed to feed him fish by hand and pet his main as you did. You still aren't the best at standing so they brought you a chair to sit on. Dave carried you as Dirk's crew brought your darling hippocamp over to the side. They were going to attempt to lower him down with the miniature ship made of... hard driftwood? _"Just regular wood."_ Oh, my. You don't really have a frame of reference for many things, you have no idea how this ship was crafted or made. But you can appreciate the labor that went into creating it. You marvel at the men attempt to get such a large hippocamp into the boat. 

You smile and hold on close to Dave's chest. You direct your husband to walk closer to the water. Once you are in position, you give the word. You tell your steed that you release him, you give him the word that he is free to go. 

He lets out a loud whiny. He kicks up his hoofs and gallops over the ship and dives into the water. The sunlight dancing on the top of his scales. When he lands, the water splashes up. White bubbles and foam surface.

Dirk steps to your side. He seems upset to have let the beast go, at least your husband seems to think so. Dave tells you softly in his mind that Dirk's always _had a thing_ for horses... whatever those are. 

Your darling has many things to teach you about the human world and you have nothing but time now. You're happy to learn all he has to teach you.

Now that you are free of all your attachments to the ocean... the day your life truly begins... is today. 


	17. Ein Mensch zu sein

You’re swimming through the waters. You had kept your head high till now, but it’s been so long since you’ve seen another mermaid. They all must have found their soulmates by now. Still, you can’t return home in shame. You must keep searching, you must. 

You sigh. Your long black hair dancing in the water. You feel like sinking to the ocean depths, you’ve never felt so low. 

You can’t break down. You can’t just- but you do. You hold your head in your hands, then you move your palms to your eyes as you weep into your hands. Your throats choking up as you sob. No one is left. You’re all alone. You’re going to have no one to love you, no soulmate to bond with or confide in. You’re sure even your mouthy brother must have found someone by now! He’s always been the charming and charismatic one in the family. You always had your head in the currents- or rather to pardon the phrase- you’ve always had your head on land. You dreamt of living on the surface with the humans. Dining with them and learning their ways.

On the surface one is free, one is happy. There is no happiness in the ocean. Only bits of trash the human’s have lost or casted aside for you to marvel over. Now that you’re brother is most likely in love with another handsome prince from some far sea, Johannes’s probably going to leave you behind. 

Johanneshad excitedly bragged that he had a vision of his darling love. Someone with a white hair and red eyes. He must be from the arctic sea, your brother must have already returned to your father to discuss leaving the throne to you. He would leave you with that responsibility… and well… you think you could be happy if he is. You can’t see any hope in your dreams. You would have loved to see the surface world. The land. The world outside the sea. But there is no hope. There is nothing but the ocean. 

You rub your eyes. You can’t feel water escape them but you can feel that they are sore. 

You look around you.

Tiny black pearls surround you for a fleeting moment.

Then. Nothing.

There is nothing around you…

nothing...

Suddenly you can smell something strange. Something you smell whenever you find trash floating in the ocean, only stronger!

You gasp. You take off and rush up to the scent. 

It’s your brothers hippocamp!

why does it smell like a-

You feel your soul sink... and then rise!

You continue following the scent, praying in your heart that there really are no other mermaids left in the breeding grounds.

. . .

You followed the scent and went -as quickly as your tail would let you- after it.

You found John’s hippocamp. He seemed so happy to see you. Oh course Johannes would bring his steed with him instead of just swim! He must feel like he doesn’t need to follow tradition! It's only done just to prove your endurance and to your lover! He felt the need to skip a step you suppose. Like always! And of course, your father and mother encouraged _you_ to do everything the right way, Johannes though. Ha! He can get away with anything. And apparently, even _courting a human!_

You know that had to happen! There’s no way he was harmed or abducted! No human could stand a chance against your brother! He is ballistic in a fight! Not even a school of humans could best him! 

You chuckle. Hope restored in your heart. Even in your lowest moments, your brother is still always the thing that pulls you through. You must thank him in person… after you meet his darling human husband!

You hop onto John’s hippocamp and turn him around to face the direction he came from. You cheerfully point ahead as you shout for him to take you to see Johannes! 

. . .

You reach the surface on your own. You look around. You gasp when you spot it on the horizon. The human vessel. The thing the elder's called a ship! You’re tired from your journey, but you must press on! You must!

You rush over as quickly as you can. It steadily grows and grows in size as you approach it! It’s huge! It’s looming over you! Almost like it was crafted by the gods! You swim and eventually reach its side. You float along the surface of the water, you call out a wanting cry... but no one hears you. The ship carries on.

You continue swimming around the back of the ship. You swim over the V shaped waves it’s creating.

You spot something fall into the water. You gasp! Did someone hear you after all? Maybe it’s for you!?

You rush over to see.

Something is pulling up a few fish in an oddly shaped basket, one of the fishes is massive!

You bet this basket could hold you! You wait patiently, swimming along the surface and right by the ship. 

Once the tan-colored thing fell into the water, you swim over to it. You settle right on the bottom of the laced… what is this? It’s like no seaweed you’ve ever felt. No matter! You’re just going to press on!

You start giggling when you begin to lift up into the air. 

You leave the water and begin to hover in the air, like a seagull! 

You hear a few grunts as you get closer to the surface of the ship.

“Last one, okay?” The human is speaking such a bizarre language! You’ve never heard anyone with an accent like that!

“Bist du müde?" You know that voice! "Bereits?" You'd know that voice anywhere!

“John. Sorry, I can’t keep it up." The human keeps grunting and panting. "Can’t you -ugh- feel how sore my arms are?”

Once you get to the top. You see the human! His eyes are wide and staring into yours. They are red! Oh and his hair is white! 

You laugh and look at your brother,

"Du hattest recht, er ist hübsch."

You are dragged onto the surface of the vessel.

John’s soulmate rushes to get you out of his trap.

Johannes is stunned to see you. He’s resting on the surface as John’s love stands above you! Actually stands! Wow!

You instantly flop closer to your brother and wrap your arms around him. You cheer and laugh. John pulls you close.

He tells you he missed you.

You missed him so much more.

You pull away and look up at his darling.

John's darling husband gets down on the ground. He asks you a strange question.

John translates for you, oh! He's asking if you're alright.

You cheerfully nod. Now you are!

John shuffles a bit and you feel something's a miss... something's off...

Wait just a moment...

LEGS!?

John is now human!?

You gasp and grab his shoulders you shout at him a million things at once. John’s human lover is looking at you with confusion struck across his handsome face! even you can’t make out what you’re screaming!

"EH- ETAPPE! UH-UH- BEINE! BEINE!"

John starts laughing. He pulls you into a tight hug. He lightly laughs. 

John looks up at his husband and tells him softly, "Sie ist nur aufgeregt."


	18. Teil ihrer Welt

It took so long to pry Jade away from your legs. Your sister seemed so amused that you had turned human, you attempted to explain to her that you are **not** human. She didn't want to hear it, she wanted to ask a million questions and not listen to any of the answers. She beamed when she saw -what she called- _the main human._

Dirk stood over her for a moment, he snapped his fingers and got one of his men to pick up your sister. She smiled and cheerfully waved at Dirk, "Hallo!"

Jade then coughs for a moment and regally states, "Wir sind Jade-"

Oh! She's not doing this seafoam-shit if you're not! "Jade. halt Bitte!"

She talked over you, saying that by the grace of the seven seas she is the- "Prinzessin des Mittleren Ozeans."

You bury your face in your hands.

Jade proudly holds up her head and asks with her eyes closed shut, "Wer ist in unserer Gegenwart?"

You hum out your frustrations as Dirk breaks character... and fucking laughs.

Jade suddenly starts chatting it up again, asking an array of questions. None of which Dirk has the time between her stings of sentences to answer. 

Dirk turns to his servent and says, "let's put her in the water, hopefully, we can cool her off." 

. . .

Dirk politely nodded at Jade's words as she spoke. The man carrying her could barely contain her. She's jumping around and hoisting herself up on his shoulders. Her tail is right up against the man's face right now. You interrupt her to tell her to settle down. Jade nods and ignores you. Luckily it only takes a moment for her to shift around again. Now it's just her bare chest in his face.

Dave was carrying you and trailing right behind his brother and the servant carrying your sister. Dave seems surprised that your sister is -in his mind- completely naked. Apparently it's rare he ever sees any woman from any culture or place topless. It seems to be improper to not cover up in the city he comes from and in other similar cultures seeing a woman's bare chest is strictly for their spouses to view. It seems taboo to him to look at her, so Dave isn't even looking in her direction at the moment. 

Dave was carrying you over to where he takes you swimming, he told you that Dirk was planning on placing Jade in the water to make her feel at home. You don't know how she's going to respond to that. She's probably just about to ask if she can be turned into a human as well... your sister might even ask how you managed to do it... oh well, she won't listen to the answer anyway. 

When the servant carrying Jade opened the door and kicked it open Jade jumped and squealed. She clapped her hands together and started kissing the servant who was carrying her. She seemed so pleased with the fact she was entering the _mysterious human vessel..._ The man carrying her seemed pleased with being kissed by such a beautiful woman.

You laughed into one of your hands at the scene. Dave seems amazed by how excitable your sister is. Everything is new to her and this was always her dream, you both understand why she's so excited. Dave compares it to a _kid in the world's largest candy store._ You don't know what a candy store is but you're adding that to the list of things to see once you get on land.

Dirk directed you over to one of -what your husband's mind calls- _the tanks._ Dirk had you and Dave stand besides him and in front of the water as he directed the servant to place Jade into the tank. A fleeting moment passed before she happily swam down and up to Dirk, she started asking questions again. 

Dirk let out a long sigh out from his nose. He seems tired of her already, he must think that she's a pain. Ha. Well, he better not be rude to her! You can take Dirk's insults, sure! But if he ever insults her, you're gonna give him some real pain to deal with!

Dave bounces you up in his arms. He kisses your cheek and tells you, "if Dirk insults her, I'll deal with him _for you."_

That's just his cute way of telling you -and Dirk- he's gonna _talk to Dirk about the problem._ Fine, you will settle such occasion like _human_ men. Not only that, you're sure that Jade can handle her own battles. She is a woman now after all. 

Jade giggles and keeps talking on and on about what the elders have told her about humanity and their strange ways. She seems to think that being placed in water is a kind gesture, when you were first placed into it you thought of it as a place to imprison you. You screamed and hissed as you crawled out of the water and demanded the men that dragged you up there guide you back to your lover. Dave tenses up a bit in your arms. You guess the image of you swiping at men and using your nails to carve into their chests just to get back to him is more than Dave's gentle little heart care bear... but it was only a light wound. 

Jade is still going on and on and on... jezz, how many things does she have to say till she's finally done introducing herself?!

Dirk snapped his fingers for his servant to return back to him.

Dirk turned to the servant of his and asked for something. The man left you four alone. 

Jade continued to ask a million things, her words are muffled but you can hear every one. She kept asking about what food humans eat and if they eat fish- but she guesses that they do because of the thing she was dragged up with caught some fish. But then she realized that _you_ must have ate them all. She starts chuckling, Jade's poking fun of you now, claiming that you have a bottomless pit as your stomach. You interrupt her, shouting up at her that you eat as much as she does.

Dave chuckles as he bounces you up in his arms again. 

Then the door from outside opens again.

You hear heels click on the floor. Jade continues talking, you turn your head and watch Rose as she walks in. The air in the room turns a bit cold. Wow... her soul really is like a demons. She seems upset that she was disturbed and summoned to come here. She holds her head up high. Rose walks on and then, she hears a woman's voice. Rose turns her head to look up at Jade.

Your sister keeps talking. She's laughing about some story that she heard about humans and how they can hardly swim. Jade sounds so smug, and then suddenly bubbly again.

Rose tilts her head up and to the side, watching Jade intently.

Then... Jade's eyes fall on Rose.

She suddenly stops.

Jade's gem green eyes spark up. You've never seen Jade look at anything in such a way before.

She looks like she spot... something that gives her life purpose.

Then. Jade begins to smile. She's bouncing up and down with her fists clenched and pulled into her chest. 

Jade calms her excitement. She steadies herself and confidently lifts up her head. 

Jade begins to sway to the side. She extends out her hand, then flexes her wrist and turns away from all of you. 

You smile up at her, you expect now that most of you leave. This is now private between the two women here. 

You've known mermaids unafraid to have audiences but you'd rather not see your sister continue with... her display. Jade is giving the Rose human eyes as she sways her hips slowly from side-to-side.

As Dave starts to walk off, you reach out a hand and pinch Dirk by the ear. You don't even use your words. You expect Dirk to simply follow. 


	19. A good start

You think you hear the door shut. You're not sure. Your ears a ringing a soft, gentle hum. 

Your eyes are fixed on the woman in front of you. She's swaying like the calmest currents of the seas. 

Delicately dancing in the water. Her ebony hair flows around her, twirling and delicately flowing with her every one of her movements.

You're no stranger to the beauty of women, but you are feeling a wave of emotion splash over you.

You feel... something akin to fear.

She's beautiful, much too beautiful for the likes of you.

Still, _she is dancing to earn your favor._

She stops and happily looks at you, _she's expecting that you do the same._

You lift up both of your arms, you pose with your hands fixed above your head. You begin to slowly move them down your body. You trace the outline of your breasts and then your tiny waist. You then begin to slip off your dress. You are dancing the proper way for a witch to dance, unclothed. Plus, you're also showing this _cute little mermaid_ what the score is.

You slip off the top part of your dress. You let the dress fall of your thick hips and down to the floor. She must be admiring how your hourglass figure looks in your black lingerie. You are lucky you never wear anything different under your garments. You think you have her completely taken in by your looks. You certainly hope so, she already has you.

. . .

A silver ball is laced around your neck. 

You trace your fingers over her scales. You’re right behind her swimming in the water, holding her neck back and above the air. She whines, this must be the right spot. You place a kiss on her lips. You stick a finger inside of her. She gasps. You keep slowly fingering her. You give her a little _"tsk"_ You want her to loosen up. She does once you slip yourself in a little bit more. You don't let her get too comfortable. You stick in another finger. 

Now Jades panting and grabbing into your wrist, she’s guiding you in deeper. Not only that, but she wants it faster. You bite her ear and then whisper. “What a good girl."

Jade pants out the only thing word that you told her prior to dipping into the ice cold water, _"Ahhh- Rose."_


	20. Sicherheit

It's around the time of the day where Dave eats one of his horrible little meals. It's comes with what he calls a _salad._ It's a disgusting little thing Dave is burdened with eating, Dirk demanded that he start to eat better than what he usually does, you believe your husband has the right to consume anything that he wishes. Dave instantly reminded you _"you're sweet."_

You're sitting at the table, watching in horror as Dave places a small red ball into his mouth. You are thankful that you can only share pain and not taste. You shake your head and then you pick up a silverfish by the tail and swallow it whole. Dirk was kind enough to _allow_ you the pleasure of eating some extra fish on the ship. You are certain this is just the leftover feed for your old hippocamp that he recently released. 

You sigh. You turn your head to the side and spot the witch coming in, she's a good distance from you... but you spot her carrying your sister in her arms. Jade is chucking and now wearing cloth around her chest, no wait the cloth is very long, it's covering her whole body... it's much longer than her tail apparently... but wait... her tail is much thicker than that. _"Oh!"_ Seems as if the two of them are bonded in soul! You can see it now. Jade's aura is beginning to glow a bit more purple, you're thankful that it is not black and eerie. 

Dave shoots his head around. He takes a good long look at your sister and the witch. 

You can feel his... _contempt...?_

Dave seems to think the display is shameful? Something is off about how Rose is with Jade so soon in Dave's mind.

it's no different than you and him. You listen to the thoughts in Dave's mind a bit more... _"oh."_ Dave seems to be revolted by the idea of someone like Rose not taking the time to get to know Jade as a person first before _cementing_ their marriage. Dave seems to think that Rose is only after one thing and one thing alone. You're certain that Rose must have an interest in Jade's heart though. Rose seems to be a much happier person now, she's smiling as she's walking over with Jade in her arms. Your sister is planting kisses on her nose and on her cheek.

You keep your head held high as you tell Dave that they did things _the mermaid way._ You don't know what the _human way_ is, but solidifying their bond through such means, as soon as the day that they met, is normal. They must have danced and then bonded. It's the usual way... Except... now that you think of it... Rose might not have showed off her wealth and her magic items to Jade first, you are unsure if they did that or not... Jade seems like the untraditional sort anyway, part of why your father always encouraged her to always stick to tradition.

Now Jade is kicking up her legs, she's cheering as she approaches you.

Your sister gleefully tells you that now, not only is she going to live on the surface world, not only has she found her soulmate, but now she also is human!

You smile as Jade gleefully bounces up and down in Rose's arms. Rose looks like she can handle all of Jade's weight, you smirk a bit. You know that the witch is just using magic in order to do so. Rose most likely is going to do everything for Jade with her tainted form of magic from now on.

That doesn't exactly seem to be _human._

. . .

You are now sitting besides your husband as you watch your sister, on the other side of the table, try an array of different human foods. Jade seems to be fine with everything put in front of her. Jade's happily eating up everything with a smile and a hum. She holds up several long tin strands of what Dave told you is spaghetti and slurping them up. Jade swallows it down and then shoves an entire loaf of bread into her mouth.

Rose is chuckling, she is looking at your sister with kind eyes. Dave, however, still seems to think that Jade is an innocent young woman who needs protecting from this evil witch who is out to corrupt her. Dave thinks that your sister is an innocent little mermaid who _needs **protecting**_ **.** That's enough to make you laugh! Dave knows nothing about your sister, if he knew anything about her, that would be the first fact about Jade! Jade does not need anyone's protection!

Jade is much more dangerous than you are! She's quiet the fighter and she is a horrible person to get into an argument with, she always threatens a light dual for what she wants, that and a real dual. If anything, you should be worried that Rose gets corrupted by Jade and _her_ will!

Dave's not so much worried about Jade's character, there's something else he's worried about Rose corrupting...

Right, Dave knows nothing of your sister. However, you know Jade well so if anyone should be worried that a dark witch would corrupt her will or her heart, it would be you! And you're not afraid in the slightest. Jade is quite capable of taking care of her own aura, and you can see that deep deep deep in the pit of Rose's soul, underneath all the black aura that Rose has a tiny little purple heart. One that is being pulled right into Jade's green soul laced around Rose's neck.

Rose's black aura is doing nothing to consume Jade's, in any way! If Rose _was_ evil and corrupting your sister, then Rose would already be eating Jade's soul... ooooh... your husband seems to think that Rose is going to corrupt Jade with something... other than magic. 

Oh goodness! Your husband's mind only seems to capable of focusing on only _one thing!_ Oh, who knew humans were so simple! Dave only seems to think about _bonding._ You are certain that Jade can take care of herself in that department too! Although, if Rose really is going to take advantage of your sister in anyway, you're first in line to carve into the witch. 

Dave chuckles and kisses the top of his head. As soon as he looks down at you, Dave pictures you panting and on your back with your legs up and spread apart.

You wonder if all humans are this simple minded. 

You let out a small sigh as you pat Dave's hand.

You reassure him that your sister should be fine in Rose's hands, the two are soulmates. It's very atypical that any soulmate would harm another... you smile at Dave as you tell him with your heart, _unless it was... something that the other willed, of course._

You laugh once Dave turns bright red.


	21. Two birds. One stone.

_'Oh my.'_ It would seem as if the smallest of the Strider's finds your display to be shameful. You can tell by the look in his eye. You chuckle as you watch your darling little wife consume everything placed in front of her with no discrimination. Jade seems to be content with everything she's eaten. She is not picky like her brother is.

John had spoken up, saying words that were mostly foreign to you.

Jade giggles with a sliver of bread in her hand. Jade translates for you that apparently...

Oh my...

Dave seems to think that you will ruin this girl! In what way, you are unsure. But you most certainly will not.

You point at your wife and tell Dave, "You do not know how opinionated this _girl_ is! She takes me for a push over!"

Jade lightly hums and then kisses you on the cheek. Jade giggles and seems determined to prove to Dave that she is a quick learner. _'Oh Dear. What is she planning now?'_

Seems Jade has had enough taste testing for now, she gets a thought in her head and instantly acts on it. 

Jade then pushes herself out of her chair.

Jade struggles to stand up, but she refuses to seem weak in any way.

You chuckle, she's only doing this to prove to the table that she can stand on her own two feet. You know she’s just about to fall. You stand up and reach out your arms as she starts to lose her balance.

Jade gives you a pout, you give her a smile. You softly say in your heart,

_"No one can learn how to walk in one day, it takes time."_

You pull her close to your chest, Jade snuggles up to your neck and it looks like she expects another kiss.

Her mind is just screaming _“kiss me!”_

Before you could embrace her lips, John calls out for his sisters attention, he looks so happy she has legs. But Dave is giving you a glare.

You set Jade back down in her chair with a small peck on the lips. Jade giggles and cuddles up to you again.

You smile down at her and look back up at Dave. Dave seems concerned for your little lady.

You get it now, you violated this poor innocent little mermaid girl’s body without a shred of romance. But Jade was the one begging for more. She’s still giving you eyes like she wants to know all the secrets of how human girls please each other. 

You can’t wait for her to have a heat, she’s going to sound so needy. And you're certain you won't be able to end it. 

You bite down on your lip. Your wife told you that only males have the tools to end a heat... but if you were to... service your wife continuously... it would make the heat easier. You dread the wait, you want her to be hot now.

Jade looks at you, she can read your thoughts. You are well aware, too bad for her your thoughts are almost always this tainted. You stare at her chest, and then at the table. You picture how perfect her pussy looks. You’d love to eat that instead of the biscuits on your table, Jade knows it.

Jade instantly turns to her brother and tells him about how her marriage is going. Jade says how she’s already completely and totally head over heels… even though her wife seems to only focus on... her body.

“Darling.” You interrupt her, “maybe spare your brother from the details of _this_ part of our relationship.”

Jade points at you and tells her brother in her own language, _“she won’t stop staring at my breasts! Is your lover like this!?”_

John nods and speaks a few words you can’t understand, all you know is that it must have been bad.

Daves beet red again.

 _"It must be a human thing."_ Jade rests her elbow on the table and looks up at the ceiling, _"She won't stop thinking about sex!"_

John nods and agrees in words you can't make out.

Dave jolts up a bit, "don't tell your sister **that!"**

John shrugs and speaks to his husband again.

John then turns to Jade and speaks with her.

Jade tilts her head, _"huh? Romance? I don't know..."_

John interrupts for a moment and laughs, he's rolling his eyes like he's translating something stupid that Dave was thinking.

Then Jade turns to you and grabs you by your dress, _"romance me! Court me like humans court other humans!"_

"Ah... My." You smile as she lets you go, "darling, we can go on a date if you wish. I-"

"I have already heard that you courted the princess here."

_'Great.'_

Your wife gasps and turns towards Dirk, she seems happy to see him. 

You on the other hand are not. You usually can sense when he's approaching you, or when anyone does honestly, but you were so taken aback by Jade and her beauty, you didn't notice your _master_ approaching you.

You stand up from your chair and greet him. He obviously wants you standing, and Dirk seems to want you to tend to other duties.

Dirk looks at both you and his brother as he says, 

“Your minds are so clouded on simplistic matters. Did none of you think clearly about how the merpeople will react to two members of the royal family suddenly going missing? They very well may track them the two of them here and accuse us of kidnapping." Dirk looks down at Jade and her dress, he can clearly see that she has legs now. Dirk looks up at you.

You speak up stating, "I am certain _if such an occasion were to arise,_ John here has excellent diplomacy skills... and Jade would be about to vouch for us as well. However, I shall ready more potions for you to use against their magic if you so wish." You bow your head down to Dirk. 

You take a peak at your wife. She's making such an adorable face. You want to see that face panting in pleasure and in pain. You want to kiss her lips and finger her without mercy. You want to grind your hips against her, maybe kiss her thighs a little, lick her -

_"Rose, my darling! The Dirk human is speaking to you!"_

Jade turns and says to your current master, _"she only ever seems to think about my body!"_ You feel like covering her mouth to stop her from saying more but she seems satisfied with just saying that.

"Aufschlussreich. Dankeschön." Dirk looks up at you. “Rose. You have a responsibility to tend to your duties first. Do not allow your mind to lose focus on our current goal.”

You nod, “if the goal is to gain more knowledge on mermaids, I’ve already learned so much… "

You smile at your master and then turn to his brother,

"Dave, can you try something for me?”

"Yeah?" Dave looks up at you as you stand up over the table.

“Can you massage the back of John’s neck?” You are almost getting a kick out of this.

Dave drags his hands up to John's neck. Instantly, John's fins pop out.

John smiles and covers his mouth to giggle.

"Seems I learned a few things about their anatomy." You look back at Dirk, "I think I should... _continue_ with my _studies."_

You hear John let out a small shudder, your eyes widen as you look over at John.

You didn't expect this kind of response. "Oh my."

Dave seems like he's being rough with John's neck.

Something your wife doesn't care much to respond too... oh... seems as if John might have a bit of a thing for... asphyxiation. You cover your mouth and chuckle. 

Dave asks John, "you okay? Am I being too rough?"

John pulls Dave’s hand down. The two exchange glances. Dave instantly starts to blush.

You look back at your wife. She looks back up at you, her mouth full of bread. Jade shrugs and then goes back to feasting.

Mermaids seem rather... _unmoved..._ by any display other than that of their soulmates. 

You will have to ask her later if that-

_"Not entirely, I just think that what they do is none of my business. But I would rather you... not encourage such behavior from my brother infront of me... plus the Dirk human seems enraged, dear. You should be more sensitive to other people's feelings."_

Oh. That's right. She can read your thoughts.

You seem to be forgetful that your wife and you basically share the same mind.

You look over at Dirk, Jade is right. You only really did serve to enrage Dirk.

You sigh and offer, "I can attempt to make the ship move faster. I will leave once my wife is done-"

 _"Oh!"_ Jade smiles up at you. _"You are going to use **your** magic?!"_

"Yes, dear." You nod. 

_“And you are attempting to understand our bodies and our ways?”_

"Yes." You smile softly at her.

_"Hmm... I’ll allow you to do anything to my body if… you show me your magic!"_

Very well.

_'Two birds. One stone.'_


	22. heißes Wasser

Your wife is carrying you again into a small fully little thing she called a _room._ It's pretty cramped. You do like how it's like a little cave though, it feels private! Like Rose's room does! Except this one is much smaller.

Before Rose took you here, she took you with her to speak with the men in the front of the ship, she told you that they are the men who steer the vessel. One of the men from the crew has joined you and your wife, apparently human's don't travel through instinct, they travel by charting the waters and using a little funny metal thing. Your wife told you it's called a _compass._ Such funny little names in such a funny little language. 

Rose is holding you up. She places you down on the ground next to her.

Rose is showing you a pile of little black rough-looking rocks. 

You wish to touch it, but your wife warned you otherwize. Rose told you that the little rocks are too hot to touch.

Rose just told you, "I need to speed up the ship, darling. I am going to use my magic to heat up the rocks and also to attempt to push the ship so it moves through the water faster."

Ah yes, you recall that your darling wants the ship to move faster so you all can get out of the waters as soon as possible. You can understand why...

Your father... once he realizes that you are gone, is going to do all in his power to _liberate you_ from the humans.

But just because you are royalty, does not excuse you from the law. Your laws are strict. Your family is too. However, instead of being torn apart on the surface, you would instead probably be brought to the empress for execution. She might even tear your soul away from your wife and to the same thing to your brother and his funny guppy husband.

You sigh and pout down at the ground.

You don't want to be killed... but your family would probably view your deaths to bring less shame than your marriages to two wonderful, funny humans. 

Your wife lifts up your chin. Rose has a warm peaceful look on her face. 

Rose smiles at you, _"my love. I shall protect you. I guarantee you, I will keep you safe."_

You feel your heart soothe from her words. She's so caring and gentle. 

You place your hand on hers and then she slowly backs away.

Underneath Rose's dark aura, you can sense such a sweet, loving soul. 

You're sure your brother can see that as well, he seemed to approve of your wife. You are satisfied with that, Johannes's opinion is the only opinion you've ever cared for... other than your wife's of course! 

Rose is standing over you. You keep staring up at her, you watch as your darling lifts up her arms and spreads out her fingers, she begins wiggling them. You instantly giggle. 

Rose smiles as she continues focusing her magic onto the ship.

She's so funny! Rose wants to make the ship move faster instead of moving the water around the ship! You giggle.

Rose then turns to you and stops using her magic, "what?"

You nod and smile as you tell her with your heart, _"I can show you!"_

_. . ._

Rose took you to the very front of the ship. You can oversee the water.

The man standing besides the two of you is talking. You look up at your wife as she translates his words. Rose tells you that the boat is shaped in such a way that it only can displace so much water as it moves through the ocean. 

You nod and ask Rose if it would be alright if she placed you on the ground at the very tip of the ship.

Rose places you down and tells you to stay put, she's doting on you, telling you not to move in fear that you'll fall. 

You give her a light huff and lift your head, you are not moving from this spot! You're not going to get harmed!

Rose is such a worried little calm!

You keep your cheeks puffed up as you lightly wave your hands and push the water backwards. 

The ship lifts a tiny bit. 

You can feel Rose's heart rise as well, she seems... interested in what you're doing. 

You keep moving the water around the front of the ship, you're only somewhat boosting the ship up.

Rose kneels down besides you and tells you, "great work, darling."

You feel a warm glow around you. You're smiling and humming to yourself, beaming with pride. 

Your darling wife asks if she can go back to the room from before while you continue on.

You nod as Rose kisses the top of her head. She tells you to follow the directions that the man gives you.

Rose than tells the man to point in the direction that the ship needs to go.

. . .

You can hear your wife's thoughts. Rose seems to feel very confident. Her heart is glowing as you assist her with pulling the ship through the seas. After a good amount of time you feel her arms tiring. Your poor human wife must get tired easy... Oh wait... Rose forgets that you can read the truth in her heart. You know that Rose can reset her energy level using her magic from her _dark masters. A_ pparently, Rose just wants to take a break and spend time by your side again.

You smile and chuckle down at the ground. The man besides you looks down at you. He is staring at you in a way that you **do not** appreciate! He seems to think that staring at your chest instead of your eyes is appropriate!

You snap your teeth at him and flair up all eight of your fins.

You can hear Rose laugh in your mind, "you know, one of my little _friends_ on this ship seems to think that you need constant protection? I will have to ask you to snap like that at him just to prove how **scary** you can be." She's chuckling. 

You smile ahead at the water and continue pushing the water until your wife arrives.

Rose casually strolls up to you, the things she wears around her feet click against the ground. 

You turn your head and watch her walk up to you. 

Rose's _dress_ is so lovely, you had never seen anything like it ever in your life. You find her black tinted lips to be charming. When she kisses you, she leaves black marks on your dark skin. You love the way your hands look after she places kisses on your finger. Rose smiles at you for picturing her kissing you again. You hold your head up, you are quite proud of your thoughts. You love your darling wife and you will never be ashamed of your thoughts!

Rose steps over to you and gets to her knees. 

Rose holds you close, "ha! you did so well, my darling!"

You feel your eyes widen. You nuzzle your head into her neck and shut your eyes, you feel so... warm.

You let out a small hum, it feels so good to be praised by her and to be in her arms.

You start breathing heavier. You open your eyes once you realize how.... hot you are. 

You're panting. You whine a bit as you pull away from Rose.

Instantly, you feel the air change.

Rose is smiling down at you like a shark about to consume its prey.

_'Oh boy.'_


	23. Just for you

You’re hovering over her, Jade’s face is filled with anguish.

You watch as she squirms beneath you, your fingers were good to her earlier, but you needed to do something even better to top yourself today, she is a princess after all she deserves only the best treatment.

Jade looks down at the book you’re holding. Tentacles emerging out of the pages, probably from one of the dark lords you serve. She doesn’t need to know that, all she needs to know is that they’re always ready to violate your prey and today it’s Jade.

You know how good those tentacles are, after all you spend a lot of lonely nights in this room but now you have a new little toy to break. You lean over and bite her nipple. She whines and moans at the same time.

You pull away as you chuckle.

You look down at your wife as you ask, “does it hurt?”

_“Yes.”_

You chuckle. You know it does. You can feel it too. 

“Hmm… look at you, so desperate to cum.” You can feel how hot the ball on your chest is. 

Shit. All of it feels so good. 

_“Rose, Rose… I need more.”_

“Hm. Are you almost there?” You're asking like you don't know. 

_“Ye-yes. I’m cumming. I’m cumming. I’m so close…”_

“Oh… let me make it a little easier.”

You begin to flip the page. The tentacles retreat from Jade’s body and return to the book. Jade sits up and whines. She's about to yell at you again how this is not how a princess should be treated.

You chuckle and as you flip the page. A tentacle as thick and as long as an arm emerges. It feels around and lands on Jade’s stomach, she stares down at it with wide eyes. You chuckle as she gasps, it jumps right into fucking her without mercy. Jade’s calling out to you again, half with rage and half with lust. 

_“Rose! Ah! Warn me before you- ahhh! Fuck!”_

You reel back your head and gasp.

The two of you pant together as Jade keeps getting fucked.

“Did you just cum?” You smile. You know she did. 

_“Ahhh… hmm… don’t… think you’re off the hook for this… just because… it’s… ahhh…”_

“How about I make it up to you?” You steady the book and crawl over Jade. You hold yourself up with your arms. You spread out your legs and another tentacle just as large instantly slides into your pussy. You lick your lips as you look down at Jade. She’s staring up at you, panting. 

Then, your eyes suddenly widen. You look down at Jade with dread on your face.

Jade's eyes are almost closed shut, she grunts out, _“what is it?”_ Jade asks in her own language.

She knows the answer.

You open your mouth but only groans come out. You fall down completely onto Jade’s body, your fall cushioned by her huge breasts.

 _'_ _Shit.'_ You’ve never been so hot before.

Jade starts laughing. _“Oh? Is there one in the wrong hole?”_

“Y- _ah-_ yes.” The words come from your gut. Your eyes are almost welded shut, your eyes are closed tight.

Jade tsks at you and grabs your chin, _“it’s what you fucking deserve, you little bitch.”_

“Fuck.” You pull yourself back up and whine over her moans, “I love you, Jade.”

“I love you more!” Jade smiles. Her eyes go back to being closed as you lift up her legs with one of your hands. You present her ass to the book and another large appendix comes to destroy her other hole. 

Jade yelps. _“Ah- Rose! I-”_

You chuckle. “Sorry, princess.”

 _"I can't take any more than this!"_ Jade grabs the pillow below her. _“My- oh oh, god! Rose! My love! It’s killing me!”_

You smile as you reach your hand back to the book and flick it once. The tentacles start vibrating. You smile down at her. “Better? My liege?”

_“Ahhh… more…”_

“Such a needy slut. You want even more?” You smile down at Jade.

_“Hmm… kiss me, my little urchin. I need you closer!”_

You give her a look, one of curious fear. You feel a bit of concern… for yourself… in all the time you’ve been stalking the Earth, you never found anything that made you feel this way. 

Jade looks up at you with anger on her adorable face, _“I demand it!”_

You obey her wishes and kiss her.


	24. Perlentränen

After all of the things your wife did to you, you are finally over your heat.

Rose is drenched in sweat and holding onto you. Rose suddenly lifts up her head. She felt something strange under her arm. Rose pulls it out. 

There is a single pink pearl.

You are panting and laying against, what Rose referred to as, the bed. You pinch one of the pearls between your fingers. You tell your wife that, whenever you cry your tears roll down your cheek and then form into tiny little pearls.

You hand her the tiny pinkish pearl and then point at it, "es ist deins."

Rose has a million questions rushing through her mind, she wonders if it is magic or could be used for incantations. You've never used them in any of your spells before... mermaid tears are used in jewelry, it is rare anyone can cry those tears. You were blessed at birth with the ability by your mother. Not only that, but you've been known to be very.... _emotional._

Only from intense emotions can you cry those tears.

Rose ran you ragged, you must have let slip a few tears when you were in the heat of the moment. 

Rose holds up the few pink tiny pearls that she found.

She smiles down at them, not even with pride... she looks at them with love.


	25. the restless and the restful

You grunt, "help me lift up your hips."

John shuffles a bit against the porcelain tub, he's biting his lips. His fins are completely splayed out again. 

You just dipped his tail back down into the water so his tail would stay wet.

Shit. You can't help it. You fucking love the feeling of holding up his tail. 

Johns so fucking turned on from how hard you're gripping his hips.

Your holding him steady as you're thrusting into him.

You lift up one of your hands and put it up to his neck.

In John's mind he won't stop saying _"Shit. Shit. Shit. That's good."_

You bite down hard on your lip, you have to keep yourself together. 

You don't care too much for the feeling of your throat tightening, but John was so into you had to comply.

John lifts up his hands and scratches his nails against your back, John whines when he feels his own back get cut.

John's screaming in his head that he's getting close. You keep giving him exactly what he wants, like a good husband.

John's eyes roll up and hide behind his dim lids, he looks like you're really killing him now.

John lets out a dying chirp and you feel his hot white load hit your abdomen as you keep driving your cock into him.

You shut your eyes and focus on how peaceful John's mind is. He's sighing out loud and singing in his head about how much he loves you.

You let go of his throat and he stops clinging onto your back with his claws. John's hands turn gentle as they rest on his stomach and he pants to catch his breath. 

You focus on just how hot his body looks, John's so fuckin' beautiful and he knows it.

His perfect brown lips, glistening in the light. His messy ink black hair, tousled around even more from how much he made you pull it earlier. You finish when you start focusing on how adorable his belly looks.

John gasps at feeling your load enter his body.

John starts laughing a sinister laugh with a few closed mouth hums.

John seems to revel in how all of your thoughts are clouded with images of him, how easily your heart beats to his tune and most of all... John loves how everything you think is polluted, tinted with sex.

John fucking loves how horny you always are. Today, when one of the buffer crew men walked by, you pictured how big his cock was and John joined you in on that. John seems to love playing around with you... but now you fear it might become _too_ much of a habit. 

You started choking his neck on accident earlier, Rose told you to massage his neck, and it made all his fins on his head pop out and now John is nuts about you touching his neck and he forces you to be rough about it.

It feels like the more you do _this_ with him, the more violent he wants it... but then, afterwards John calms down and sings to you in his mind and peaceful song and expects you cuddle up to him. 

You move John up so he can rest on top of your body. You pant and feel the water gently push and pull back and forth as the ship moves. You rest your eyes. You think after you get up you want to start getting John more fish from the ocean, you're hoping you can find a sea cucumber he's really craving those right now.

John giggles and then kisses you. _"You're sweet, my darling."_

John shuts his eyes and continues singing in his head, he's expecting that you listen to his song and stop thinking so much. You peacefully do as he wills and slowly drift off to sleep.


	26. boundless rage

You've been so busy with your work of late, still your mind keeps turning towards your two children. 

Many have made it back from the waters Johannes and Jade ventured too.

You're sitting down on your throne, your wife's voice as been quietly humming in your mind all day. She seems quite excited for your children to return with their loved ones.

No doubt Johannes' soulmate is going to be a charming young man. Your son told you before he left that he thought his lover would be a prince from how lovely he looked in John’s vision. In that case, John might have been asked by his lover to swim with him back to his kingdom. If that _were_ the case, then you would have received news of it by now. One of the messengers would have teleported to your quarters.

Your wife tells you calmly to stop worrying so much, she's certain that your son and your daughter are late bloomers. You know it is tradition for the royal family to approach other's first, your wife thinks they might both be shy like the two of you both were with each other. Why, you did pass by your future wife three times because you thought she was too beautiful for the likes of you. She was a princess from another sea at the time, your wife skipped you by because she thought you were shabby and undressed to her cultures standards, since the day you first spoke, you cover your whole body in gold bands and jewels.

You sigh and blow out a few bubbles as you do. You think your wife may be right, but your children were both the impatient type, you're certain Jade would have danced with anyone who crossed her deep blue path and your son practiced his dance for so long. You're sure that he would have wanted to show off.

Your wife chuckles in your head, once again, she tells you to stop worrying. You can't help it, it's the curse of being a father, you're always worried about those two.

You lean a bit back on your throne. Hardly anyone is coming in or out of your presence today. You suppose many of your subjects are with their families right now, meeting their children's soulmates and celebrating a successful return home. You are sure you could swim out and see for yourself how everyone is fairing...

Your kingdom is a vast open space, only some rock formations were created by your ancestors to house your throne but other than that, the water is very open. Your kids used to always venture off wherever their tiny fins could take them.

Your wife chuckles in your mind about the time the two of them swam a little too far and came back running cause they saw a great white. Your wife had to cradle those two in both her arms for a full day, Jade was the most shaken by it, you could have sworn you saw the color sucked out of her perfect jade-green tail.

They were both so small then, they had the tiniest hands and their tails were way too big for their bodies and it took them so long to grow into them, and by the time they did their tails started growing again. 

You miss seeing your kids terribly, the two of them grew up to be so beautiful, just like their mother. Johannes always prided himself on having her beauty and he called his tail the most beautiful thing in all of the oceans. You didn't raise him to be humble you're afraid, but it's not an outlandish claim. Most tails in the ocean are a dim or dull color. You recall many a merman wished to chase for your son. Many boys would speak with you directly about how they felt in their heart that Johannes was their soulmate and they wished for the privilege to speak with him. With _so_ many boys claiming that they were meant to be with John as his _one and only_ soulmate, you knew their claims were as valuable to you as seafoam. You turned them all away for that reason. That and you didn't want Johannes wasting his time or getting his hopes up that some handsome young man would be his other half, your son needed to spend time preparing for his role and focusing less on boys or playing with other kids. Regardless, there was no one in your kingdom with white hair or red eyes like John predicted. Johannes told you he had a pale complexion too, sounds like someone from the arctic seas maybe... most likely the boy is a foreign prince.

Johannes is going to drowned that young man with demands that he always pay attention to him and marvel in his good looks, you know your son well. That's exactly what he would do, but your daughter. Jade is much more humble. She's always the one to ask questions too, only thing is that she demands answers. Jade isn't a very... _becoming_ princess. Jade should learn a thing or two from her brother, he is much more quiet and somber. You suspect though that Johannes' deminer might be from sorrow, he expressed he was lonely to you recently despite having you and having Jade. Your son told you he felt trapped in the sea, such talk is nonsense... that or dangerous. You know your son though, he'd do the right thing and stay underwater. Your son wouldn't attempt to reach the surface, he knows the consequences. 

You sigh again. You recall telling your son that he needed to put on a more composed face and stay focus on the path destiny layed out for him. 

John always struggled with keeping a straight face, but after you told him that he didn't even try to look happy. Johannes seemed unhappy with the role placed onto him, well he is a prince and you expect him to be ready to inherit his throne. He was selected out of your two children to rule by your own mother and then was confirmed by your best soothsayer to become king. John needs to prepare for the inevitable. 

Then, someone appears before you. One of the scouts kneels, his grayish-blue tail along the sand as he bows. You tell him to, "speak."

Your eyes widen at the news. 

Your son's Hippocamp bears the scent of... _humans._


End file.
